People do have to worry about their own cell phones being bugged, but there is also another concern of using cell phones as bugs. These are called ghost phones. How they work is that when they are called, they simply pick up without ringing and operates as a normal cell phone, letting the caller listen to whatever is going on in the vicinity. These are relatively easy to make, as you can purchase phones from Ebay and then all it takes is a little bit of soldering to turn a standard phone into a ghost phone.
You need to get Virtual Audio Cable (http://nrcde.ru/music/software/eng/vac.html). This emulates a virtual sound card that will let you record Skype calls.
There are new advances in iris scanners where the scanners can operate even if the individual being scanned is wearing colored contact lenses or even nonreflective sunglasses. Personally I don't understand how anyone could be uncomfortable getting their iris scanned. Retinal scanning requires close contact with the scanning machine, whereas for an iris scanner, you can be a distance away, because your iris is visible from a distance. Minority Report ring a bell?
EB does take down your driver's license number (they ask to see it) and other assorted info. I used to work for EB and they would actually send out letters to people who abused this. Some stores would actually not accept items from certain customers.
I live near Oceana NAS. And the roar of fighter jets flying overhead is commonplace. People that live there complain about it. My thoughts on it are, "Well, you live near a fighter base. This is something that I'm sure you knew about when you moved there and if it's that big a deal you can move elsewhere."
But what always brings a smile to my face is that when I drive around town, I often see cars with bumperstickers on their rears proudly proclaiming, "I Love Jet Noise."
I am writing this in response to AMD's recent decision to obfuscate their CPU clock speed. I would like to start off by stating that yes, I am an avid Intel supporter. But no, unlike others I am not an AMD Basher. I have great respect for what AMD has done and am very impressed by the strides that they have made with their flagship CPU, the Athlon. But in deciding to go with a model number system, they have made a great mistake.
Today, AMD seems like they will be naming their future CPUs with a model number as opposed to a clock speed. For example, lets say that AMD considers a 1.2Ghz Athlon to be the equivalent of a Pentium 4 1.4Ghz part. They would then call it an Athlon 1400, or something along those lines. What's worse is that this would also be displayed in the BIOS, so that the true core speed of the CPU would be hidden. Another CPU manufacturer tried this a few years back. Tried and failed.
The reason why AMD is doing this is because at the same clock speed, their Athlon CPUs will easily outperform their Pentium 4 counterparts. However, this does not mean that the Athlon is a superior processor. That decision is to be made by the individual after assessing his or her own processor needs. What it shows is two very different approaches to processor design. In short, Athlon processors get more "work" done in a single clock cycle. In contrast, Pentium 4 processors get less "work" done but at higher rate of cycles per second. Two solutions to the same problem, and both of them are valid. No right solution, no wrong solution.
Intel's engineers, in my opinion, picked the better solution. Why? Well for one really simple reason. For the average consumer, megahertz is the one benchmark that measures CPU power. To break this line of thinking takes more marketing money than anyone has. Bigger numbers are better. Honestly, if you didn't know anything about benchmarks and comparative values, wouldn't you think that a Pentium 4 2.0GHz processor was leaps and bounds over an Athlon 1.4Ghz processor?
Another hurdle AMD must get over is that of pricing. AMD's CPUs are indeed cheaper. But AMD will have to price its flagship CPU to compete against Intel's lower end CPUs. Again, because of the MHz difference. In a perfect world, AMD would price its Athlon GHz against a Pentium 4 2.0GHz. At the time of this writing, the cheapest cost of an Athlon 1.4Ghz is $106, while the cheapest Pentium 4 2.0GHz CPUs are being sold for $562 in lots of a thousand. So say around $600 retail or so. Again, in a perfect world, AMD could get away with charging three, four maybe even five hundred dollars for their 1.4GHz CPU. That much more is some cold hard cash. However, this is reality. They are forced to price their CPU against Intel's 1.4MHz offering, which is going for as low as $123.
So what can AMD do? At this stage in the game, the only way to beat Intel would be to do so at their own game. Apple has attempted for years to dispel what they call the "Megahertz Myth." But have they succeeded? I don't think so. Last I checked, they were receiving subsidies from Microsoft. As I see it, AMD has two choices if it wishes to survive. Either they can cater to the PC Enthusiast's market where they've made some great inroads, or they can develop a part that emphasizes clock speed. It's sink or swim time for AMD, and I'm very curious as to what they do next.
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You can purchase faraday bags used to prevent cell phones from receiving any signal.
People do have to worry about their own cell phones being bugged, but there is also another concern of using cell phones as bugs. These are called ghost phones. How they work is that when they are called, they simply pick up without ringing and operates as a normal cell phone, letting the caller listen to whatever is going on in the vicinity. These are relatively easy to make, as you can purchase phones from Ebay and then all it takes is a little bit of soldering to turn a standard phone into a ghost phone.
You need to get Virtual Audio Cable (http://nrcde.ru/music/software/eng/vac.html). This emulates a virtual sound card that will let you record Skype calls.
I know kung fu!
There are new advances in iris scanners where the scanners can operate even if the individual being scanned is wearing colored contact lenses or even nonreflective sunglasses. Personally I don't understand how anyone could be uncomfortable getting their iris scanned. Retinal scanning requires close contact with the scanning machine, whereas for an iris scanner, you can be a distance away, because your iris is visible from a distance. Minority Report ring a bell?
Those who can, do... those who can't, analyze.
EB does take down your driver's license number (they ask to see it) and other assorted info. I used to work for EB and they would actually send out letters to people who abused this. Some stores would actually not accept items from certain customers.
I think it's pretty clear as to who would be the bitch and who wouuld be the butch. : )
Does this mean now that George W. gets to spend nights at Bill Gates' mansion, and Bill gets to spend nights in the Lincoln Bedroom?
That can't be right, I was under the impression that Va Beach doesnt even have strip clubs. Just girls in bikinis. Not even pasties!
I live near Oceana NAS. And the roar of fighter jets flying overhead is commonplace. People that live there complain about it. My thoughts on it are, "Well, you live near a fighter base. This is something that I'm sure you knew about when you moved there and if it's that big a deal you can move elsewhere."
But what always brings a smile to my face is that when I drive around town, I often see cars with bumperstickers on their rears proudly proclaiming, "I Love Jet Noise."
Today, AMD seems like they will be naming their future CPUs with a model number as opposed to a clock speed. For example, lets say that AMD considers a 1.2Ghz Athlon to be the equivalent of a Pentium 4 1.4Ghz part. They would then call it an Athlon 1400, or something along those lines. What's worse is that this would also be displayed in the BIOS, so that the true core speed of the CPU would be hidden. Another CPU manufacturer tried this a few years back. Tried and failed.
The reason why AMD is doing this is because at the same clock speed, their Athlon CPUs will easily outperform their Pentium 4 counterparts. However, this does not mean that the Athlon is a superior processor. That decision is to be made by the individual after assessing his or her own processor needs. What it shows is two very different approaches to processor design. In short, Athlon processors get more "work" done in a single clock cycle. In contrast, Pentium 4 processors get less "work" done but at higher rate of cycles per second. Two solutions to the same problem, and both of them are valid. No right solution, no wrong solution. Intel's engineers, in my opinion, picked the better solution. Why? Well for one really simple reason. For the average consumer, megahertz is the one benchmark that measures CPU power. To break this line of thinking takes more marketing money than anyone has. Bigger numbers are better. Honestly, if you didn't know anything about benchmarks and comparative values, wouldn't you think that a Pentium 4 2.0GHz processor was leaps and bounds over an Athlon 1.4Ghz processor?
Another hurdle AMD must get over is that of pricing. AMD's CPUs are indeed cheaper. But AMD will have to price its flagship CPU to compete against Intel's lower end CPUs. Again, because of the MHz difference. In a perfect world, AMD would price its Athlon GHz against a Pentium 4 2.0GHz. At the time of this writing, the cheapest cost of an Athlon 1.4Ghz is $106, while the cheapest Pentium 4 2.0GHz CPUs are being sold for $562 in lots of a thousand. So say around $600 retail or so. Again, in a perfect world, AMD could get away with charging three, four maybe even five hundred dollars for their 1.4GHz CPU. That much more is some cold hard cash. However, this is reality. They are forced to price their CPU against Intel's 1.4MHz offering, which is going for as low as $123.
So what can AMD do? At this stage in the game, the only way to beat Intel would be to do so at their own game. Apple has attempted for years to dispel what they call the "Megahertz Myth ." But have they succeeded? I don't think so. Last I checked, they were receiving subsidies from Microsoft. As I see it, AMD has two choices if it wishes to survive. Either they can cater to the PC Enthusiast's market where they've made some great inroads, or they can develop a part that emphasizes clock speed. It's sink or swim time for AMD, and I'm very curious as to what they do next.