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User: thebigmacd

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  1. What about DSL? on FEMA Opposes Broadband Over Powerlines · · Score: 1

    Everyone on here is arguing about whether HAM or Internet is most important.

    What about DSL? It can get 3 Mb/s over unsheilded twisted pair at a range of several thousand feet.

    Why does this not affect hams?

  2. Does everyone forget... on New Zealand Shows Music Piracy Boosts Sales · · Score: 1

    In Canada we have the right to make a copy of any recording for our own personal use? Lending to people does not constitute distribution either because only "sale or renting" is prohibited. Go Canada.

  3. Re:Trains are obsolete on Money Problems May Derail First U.S. MagLev Train · · Score: 1

    Here in Canada, buses and trains are the only mode of transportation within provinces (which are very large) unless you own a car (and want to pay 50-100 dollars in gas... which is the price of a bus ticket) or can pay enourmous fees for the airplane.
    Um no...my parents just went Toronto to Edmonton at a combined cost of $850 return after taxes and fees. The RobertQ bus 2 hours to the airport cost $160. The flight out to Edmonton cost $79 each. If you phone Via Rail for pricing to go out west they will laugh at you. The bus is cheap, but it will take you several days.

  4. Re:Deathtrap? on First Hover Flight Test of X-50A Dragonfly · · Score: 1

    And HOW many Harriers are there compared to Ospreys?

  5. Re:Defense of tangible interfaces on Tangible Interfaces for Computers · · Score: 1
    Who still creates CAD drawings with a keyboard only?

    Just about everyone. I know many many many engineers and have worked in many engineering offices and I have yet to see a digitizer in any of them. With 3D CAD these days there are a few 3D manipulators, but the mouse works just great with a scroll wheel etc. In CAD you don't use your pointer to place lines, you use smart snapping and parameters to define the drawing using exact values.

  6. Re:In the next release? on Linux Based Tablets Are Coming · · Score: 1

    The main point was that these people have been using computers for decades. The fact that they also were using them to produce text is an amplifying point. The sentence could be writen without the part between the commas and still make perfect sense, so therefore the commas are correct.

  7. Re:Alternate method on Traffic Light Control For The Masses · · Score: 1

    Only that doesn't work. I know you know that.

  8. Re:Rarely used on Traffic Light Control For The Masses · · Score: 4, Insightful
  9. Re:Rarely used on Traffic Light Control For The Masses · · Score: 2, Informative

    Next time you go by a traffic light, observe the little black cylinder on top of a small pole. Each black cylinder has a sensor which is shrouded by a shroud similar to what is on the traffic lights themselves. This is the infrared sensor. In my town fire trucks and ambulances use them. One of the traffic lights has the sensor on about a 20-foot pole above the lights cuz there is an overpass and it wouldnt trigger soon enough if it were lower. I heard that the ones around here can be triggered with a consumer strobe light.

  10. Re:I don't get it... on The Complete Far Side Archive · · Score: 1

    You ARE

    Last time I checked you couldn't practically use a 1200 page book as a calendar.

  11. Re:Royal Bank of Canada on Slashback: Diebold, Peroxide, Comdex · · Score: 1

    That's right, our national bank is called the Bank of Canada (without the Royal).

  12. Re:Zip drives... on Top 5 Submerging Technologies Pinpointed · · Score: 1

    Oddly, my college (Fanshawe in London, Ontario, Canada) has a Zip drive in every machine, including the macs. All new machines have Zip added as well. But no one I know has a Zip drive at home. So basically the college forces people to use very expensive media bought at the school store that is more or less useless outside the school, instead of giving us some server space. I smell a racket. Floppies are too small for most of our project files. I, of course, discovered FTP many seasons ago.

    My friend just gave me a jaz drive + 1 GB disk cuz he couldn't see any need for it. Imagine, getting a 1 GB portable disk, for FREE! Ya I guess jaz is dead too.

  13. Perhaps... on UCSD Squabbles with Student Website · · Score: 1

    ...Michael was being sarcastic...

  14. Re:Um, what about... on Advances in Fire and Rescue Technology? · · Score: 1

    No, I bet you are far from the only one, but post-combustion gases must be exhausted from the building to prevent explosion. Superheated air and sprinkler water combine to form lots and lots of superheated steam. Although fresh air rushes in and helps the fire burn, it also pulls the fringes of the flame away from uncombusted areas. The same thing that happens when the wind shifts the right way in the event of a forest fire.

    Like when a business cuts losses, sure it doesn't cut the losses that have already happened, but it cuts the future losses.

  15. Re:GREAT IDEA! on VoIP + 802.11 = Bad News For Phone Companies · · Score: 1

    You do realize that in less than 8 months it will have paid for itself...

  16. A soccer ball is not a dodecahedron... on Universe Shaped Like A Soccer Ball? · · Score: 1

    whereas a dodecahedron is composed of 12 pentagonal faces, a soccer ball is composed of pentagons and hexagons, and is not a perfect -hedron. A buckyball (C60)is the same as a soccer ball and C70 is similar to a rugby ball.

  17. Re:Switch to mobile on Ultimate Caller ID Screeners? · · Score: 1

    nice attempt at a troll.
    cleveland was not the only city with power.
    plus, I'm in canada

  18. Re:Switch to mobile on Ultimate Caller ID Screeners? · · Score: 1

    When the power went out across the northeast, the cell towers conked out. How convenient.

  19. Re:Now How About a Good Use for SysRq? on The Guy Responsible For Ctrl-Alt-Del · · Score: 1

    Try using Plain Old Text instead of HTML Formatted...

  20. Re:Say goodbye to stealth technology on Weather Radar Goes Miniature · · Score: 1

    Passive radar is death to stealths. With passive you can actually pick up stealths by looking for a LACK of radio waves.

    Although these are weather radars which as said before don't see through clouds and are doppler, not passive.

  21. Re:Society gets dumber by the minute on Recall of Segway Announced by CPSC · · Score: 1

    You know nothing about the segway.

    You lean forward to accelerate.

    Obviously, if you lean forward and it doesnt have enough power left, you fall forward.

  22. Re:Industrial Controller. on 2.6 Ton Pinball Machine · · Score: 1

    Not necessarily a PLC, could easily be a BACnet realtime controller programmed in GCL+

    www.deltacontrols.com

    Ya, I'm an HVAC guy.

  23. Re:Wi-Fi jargon on Wi-Fi World Record · · Score: 1

    You can also use a multiple-level system (the simplest). A four-level system encodes two bits per level change (4bit/cycle), an 8-lvl system = 6 bits/cycle etc.

  24. Re:Impressive, but anyone could do the same for ch on Use Multiple Channels for Faster Wireless Networking · · Score: 1

    If you are an EE student in university or college here in Canada chances are you will end up building transceivers that operate on licenced FM bands, and they may or may not be legal, depending on the adherence to law by the prof, and his or her mood that day

    In other words, go to college and do tons of illegal stuff in the name of education :D

  25. Re:What's that? on Geek Eye for the Average Guy · · Score: 1

    Athlon XP.

    I have this nagging feeling that you knew that anyway.