Do it. The test is really easy, especially since you have access to every single question that could possibly be on the test, exactly like it will be on the test.
Seriously, skimming over the test bank a few times, then taking a practice test, lather rinse repeat until you regularly score over 80% on that test is all it takes.
To my knowledge, amateur radio provides the only free-as-in-speech global communication network that can operate completely independent of any grid
Oh, that's hardly true. A shortwave radio station with a backup generator qualifies, does it not?
Though I'm not sure what you mean by `free-as-in-speech'... not many individuals own a shortwave station. Though I imagine a shortwave station might let people come by and say `hi' on the air. [Freedom of the press belongs to those who own the press.]
A few years ago, a guy used a light bulb as an antenna and was able to work contacts on all 6 continents.
I call shenanigans. Hams sometimes use light bulbs as dummy loads, but it's not really a good idea because the resistance changes too much with the temperature of the bulb.
If a ham really did work (ignoring repeaters and things like echolink) six continents with his light bulb antenna, he probably did it via the transmission lines going to his light bulb (if you spread them out and/or make them uneven, they can make a nice antenna. In that case, the light bulb would just be a terminator, and not an antenna by itself.
The antenna is the most important part of a rig used for DXing. If you put 1500 watts into it, I imagine you could get a few watts out of a light bulb as RF, but it wouldn't be able to pick up anything. I just don't buy it.
You can easily work around the world with a 5w transceiver and a simple wire antenna.
This is a bit more plausable, though it's certainly not easy to talk to somebody 12,000 miles away with only 5 watts and a simple dipole antenna.
like the constant degrading of individual freedoms across the world
... and you're all worried about individual freedoms around the world, when over 100,000 people lie dead because of an earthquake and tsunami!
And what are you doing while all these people die? Reading and posting to Slashdot! And what are you doing while all these freedoms are being abridged? Whining at me on Slashdot.
http://heavens-above.com/ is a good place to start. Create an account, tell it your latitude and longitude and time zone, and it'll tell you where the interesting stuff is.
The Iridium flares are quite spectacular -- extremely bright if you're in the right place at the right time.
It's a lot easier to change a web browser than Switch to a new OS.
I agree. However...
People like word and excel and the great selection of windows apps and will not easily dump these applications for their Linux equivalent.
... the example you give isn't about the OS at all. It's about *applications* that are only available on a few OS's. (i.e. Windows and MacOS.)
(There is Crossover Office, which makes Office run under Linux via Wine, but it still has some pretty serious issues, at least it did when I tried it.)
And again, I agree. [Lack of] Microsoft Office is probably the number one thing keeping Linux off the desktop at many businesses today. (It's not the only thing, but it's the biggest thing.)
It's unfortunately, really, that projects like OpenOffice and AbiWord are graded, not upon their own features and merits, but on how well they interoperate with the de-facto standard, Microsoft Office. (Of course, Microsoft is fully aware of this, and it's probably the #2 reason that they keep mucking with the Office formats every chance they get -- to 1) force people to upgrade to read the documents sent by their peers who have already upgraded, and 2) to `break' things like OpenOffice.)
Re:I used to live in Austin, and it's an 8-hour dr
on
The Super Superhighway
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· Score: 3, Insightful
where's an Alaskan when you need one?
Dunno... perhaps Alaska?
In any event, I live in Texas now, and grew up in Alaksa. Do I count?
Alaskans like to say how you could split Alaska up in two, and make Texas the *third* biggest state...
Of course, unlike Alaska, in Texas, you actually drive places. I lived 15 years in Anchorage, Alaska, and never once made it to the second biggest city in the state, Fairbanks, even though it's only 200 miles away. But yet, after living in Austin, Texas for 20 years, I've driven to Dallas, Houston, Lubbock, San Antonio, Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona and beyond.
Driving from city to city is just a much bigger thing in Texas than Alaska. Sure, people do drive around the state in Alaska, of course. But not anywhere near as often as they do it in Texas.
Texas could definately benefit from some huge roads like they're proposing. Of course, the government is becoming toll-road-happy lately -- for example they want to make many of the existing major roads in Austin into toll roads. Needless to say, we're not happy about this...
Oh, they travel quite far, at least in terrestial terms. Sure, the ISS only is like 220 miles up, but it's moving at about 17,000 mph.
So anything that docks with the ISS has to go up 220 miles, and eventually has to be match the ISS's 17,000 mph velocity.
From what I can find, Progress 19 took off at 2219 GMT and docked with the ISS at 2358 GMT -- giving it about 1.5 hours in space. I suspect that most of this time was spent at approximately the ISS's 17k mph speed, so that would be 25,000 miles. (the actual figure would have to be somewhat less, since they're starting from rest, but I don't know how much less.)
I don't think that 25,000 frequent flyer miles will get you a free trip to Hawaii, but it's probably a nice start.:)
(Of course, I'm assuming that time actually spent on the ISS doesn't count. If it does, they'd get 400k miles/day -- which would probably get them oodles of free trips over the many months that they're up there.)
Re:Cool idea but may be dangerous
on
Bayesian Tail
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· Score: 4, Insightful
This is a cool idea but I wouldn't want to use it on to filter logs on important systems... every line may be crucial.
Perhaps, but doesn't the same apply to your email? Every email may be crucial as well -- but if you miss a crucial email because it was buried in spam, isn't the effect the same as if it was caught by an overzealous spam filter?
The 50 MHz indicates the BANDWIDTH of the transmitter signal
Sure. But if you just hook it up to an antenna, you've got a very weak transmitter that can do 0-50 mHz. To go higher, you need to add more circuitry -- a transmitter.
The point of this project is that it is very easy to take a signal and frequency shift it to a higher frequency for transmission (or a lower frequency for reception)
Sure, it's easy. Every transmitter and receiver does this. You don't need this device to do it. This device will not do much to help you spoof a GPS satellite signal, and certainly cannot do it by itself.
You can buy an off the shelf (and cheap) GPS frequency range antenna
You could, but why? All you need is a 7.5 mm long dipole -- whammo, GPS frequency range antenna.
If the intent was to only use it to 50 MHz, it wouldn't even be able to pick up "Classic Rock" (88.5 MHz around here).
You're not getting me. This thing will not help you spoof a GPS satellite. I imagine that you could use it to do so, after adding an appropiate transmitter, but it certainly can't do it by itself. And once you add that appropriate transmitter, you don't even need this device -- your computer sound card probably has enough bandwidth to do the job.
I guess the terrorists will just have to look elsewhere for their doomsday weapons.
So, this device, _plus a transmitter_, can be used. Gotcha. Of course, you could probably do the same by outputting the appropriate signal through your sound card output into the appropriate transmitter, and skipping this device entirely. But beyond that, sure.
to generate signals up to about 50 MHz
Except that GPS signals are at 1575 mHz. So even if you stuff that 50 mHz signal into an antenna (and the signal will likely be incredibly weak) it's not going to do it.
Sorry, but this thing is not capable of spoofing a GPS receiver, not as designed. It's a receiver. Yes, if you added a transmitter, then maybe you could, but you wouldn't need this device to do it.
especially with the FCC giving unprecedented amounts of frequency bandwidth back to the public?
Giving? Don't you mean selling? I'm a ham, and I don't recall any large new unlicensed bands showing up, or any large new ham bands. I suspect you're talking about the spectrum auctions, but that's hardly `giving' back to the public.
Couldn't the article have done just as well without the last sentence?
Thanks to non-standard hardware, option menus you have to be hardcore to understand (remember having to edit your BIOS?)
BIOS? Sure, I do that from time to time.
But seriously, you must be relatively new to PC games. Things got *way* better when Windows 95 came out and games started supporting it. Back before that, you needed a plethora of boot disks (or a cleverly constructed boot disk menu system) setting up various types of extended memory managers, TSRs, sound drivers, etc. If you wanted networked games, it got worse as you threw packet drivers into the fray.
You want to play Descent with somebody over the Internet? Can't do it, unless you payed for Kali, which routes IPX over TCP/IP. Doom was fun, but it originally did network calls via broadcast packets -- killing the entire network if more than a few people were playing.
Even after Windows 95, then 98, etc., things still got tricky. Do you have a 3dfx card? Then you want Glide -- OpenGL may not work properly. But what if your game doesn't have a Glide mode? Or what if you don't have a 3dfx card, but your game only has Glide support? (A pity -- I really liked playing
Dethkarz with my friends, but it's 3D is Glide only. I could set up an older computer to play it again, but can't expect my friends to do so too...)
Seriously, ignoring blips like requiring Steam (and an Internet connection) to play games like HL2, PC games are easier to get running right now than they have since they started requiring more than 640k of RAM and better than CGA graphics, and had to actually be *installed* on the hard drive. And as much as I enjoy bashing Microsoft, I also know that much of this `ease' is thanks to Microsoft and the semi-standardized APIs that Windows provides.
Your link points to a company that sells magnets. A better word than `program' would probably be `product'.
But no matter. It takes very strong magnets to erase today's high density media. Yes, you can erase (or at least seriously distort the data) a floppy or cassette tape with your average magnet, but to erase a DLT tape requires something much more powerful. As for a hard drive, I'd expect the required strength to be similar to that of a DLT.
Why do I know this? Because we upgraded our DLT drive to a model that puts more data (20 gb native vs. 10 gb native) on the same tapes. But the tapes needed to be erased before it would use the higher density (and the drive couldn't do it itself.) A standard bulk tape eraser would NOT do it -- it didn't affect the tapes at all, no matter how much we tried. Neither would a monitor degauser. After some investigation, I found that this wasn't expected to work, and a company that could erase the tapes for us for about $1/each. Worked nicely...
I will not even give my zip code at a store register.
You'd be amazed how many people live in the 90210 zip code...
If you need a full address, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500 is a good choice. As is 1060 W. Addison Street, Chicaco, IL 60613. For a phone number, 555-1212 is a good choice.
... I got my Rabbit Diesel up to 94 mph. Down a steep hill, with a strong tailwind, and lots of time to accelerate. (Normal top speed on flat ground and no wind = 75 mph. 0-60 mph in 45 seconds -- seriously.)
I was quite impressed. (The car, on the other hand, was shaking like mad and generally not happy about things.)
The Prius has a slightly smaller engine (1500 cc vs. 1600 cc) but the Rabbit didn't have an electric motor to help. Also, the Rabbit wasn't modified for speed in any manner, though it _did_ have a `Turbo' button on the dash. (When one pressed it, I pushed on the gas harder, creating a `Turbo' effect of sorts. Great times!)
This external power source for iPod music players uses three nine-volt batteries to provide up to ten hours of play time.
9v batteries? Talk about stupid. They're expensive, and
hold very little energy for their size. A bank of AAA or AA batteries (rechargable, of course), or some Li-Poly cells (which hold even more energy, but would require some electronics to prevent discharge below 3v/cell, and would complicate charging) would be much smarter.
Also, judging from the picture, it looks like two 9v batteries and two AA batteries. (If you need two different voltages, then you use a voltage regulator -- not rocket science here.)
As for the Altoids tins, Altoids tins are used in lots of home electronic projects. Here's another one. (And google will find you even more.)
Canadian rancher Albert Kolk's small plane banked uncontrollably in darkness over the Monashee mountains, then began spiraling toward earth. "Seat belts!" he barked to his teenage grandson and two young friends. Then he reached for a red lever in the cockpit.
Sorry Albert, but you really should tell your teenage grandson to keep his seatbelt on, all the time. You never know what's going to happen...
Case in point: Flying with my dad in his Super Cub. We're flying along, then suddenly the plane lurches down 50-100 feet in a second or so. A second later, the plane lurches back up 50-100 feet or so.
Had I not been wearing my seat belt, I'd probably have been hurt, possibly severely -- there's support braces right above my head, and I would have hit them *hard*.
(It's not certain what happened, but presumably it was a vortex created by a jet airliner, possibly above us in the clouds. We never saw the plane that created it, however. It also did no damage to the plane (dad had it checked out after landing), but it certainly sent everything not strapped down flying.)
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On the other hand, doing it with AM is a bit harder than SSB or CW ...
Seriously, skimming over the test bank a few times, then taking a practice test, lather rinse repeat until you regularly score over 80% on that test is all it takes.
Though I'm not sure what you mean by `free-as-in-speech' ... not many individuals own a shortwave station. Though I imagine a shortwave station might let people come by and say `hi' on the air. [Freedom of the press belongs to those who own the press.]
AD5RH
If a ham really did work (ignoring repeaters and things like echolink) six continents with his light bulb antenna, he probably did it via the transmission lines going to his light bulb (if you spread them out and/or make them uneven, they can make a nice antenna. In that case, the light bulb would just be a terminator, and not an antenna by itself.
The antenna is the most important part of a rig used for DXing. If you put 1500 watts into it, I imagine you could get a few watts out of a light bulb as RF, but it wouldn't be able to pick up anything. I just don't buy it.
This is a bit more plausable, though it's certainly not easy to talk to somebody 12,000 miles away with only 5 watts and a simple dipole antenna.Oh, and I'm AD5RH.
And what are you doing while all these people die? Reading and posting to Slashdot! And what are you doing while all these freedoms are being abridged? Whining at me on Slashdot.
Indeed.Physician, heal thyself.
The Iridium flares are quite spectacular -- extremely bright if you're in the right place at the right time.
'You're fired!' on hit list in word ban campaign
(`blog' is on the list too. And rightfully so. In fact, it should be at the top of the list!)
(Not that I'd try to `ban' a word, but I *do* hate it. Almost as much as `surf' for clicking on web pages.)
And again, I agree. [Lack of] Microsoft Office is probably the number one thing keeping Linux off the desktop at many businesses today. (It's not the only thing, but it's the biggest thing.)
It's unfortunately, really, that projects like OpenOffice and AbiWord are graded, not upon their own features and merits, but on how well they interoperate with the de-facto standard, Microsoft Office. (Of course, Microsoft is fully aware of this, and it's probably the #2 reason that they keep mucking with the Office formats every chance they get -- to 1) force people to upgrade to read the documents sent by their peers who have already upgraded, and 2) to `break' things like OpenOffice.)
In any event, I live in Texas now, and grew up in Alaksa. Do I count?
Alaskans like to say how you could split Alaska up in two, and make Texas the *third* biggest state ...
Of course, unlike Alaska, in Texas, you actually drive places. I lived 15 years in Anchorage, Alaska, and never once made it to the second biggest city in the state, Fairbanks, even though it's only 200 miles away. But yet, after living in Austin, Texas for 20 years, I've driven to Dallas, Houston, Lubbock, San Antonio, Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona and beyond.
Driving from city to city is just a much bigger thing in Texas than Alaska. Sure, people do drive around the state in Alaska, of course. But not anywhere near as often as they do it in Texas.
Texas could definately benefit from some huge roads like they're proposing. Of course, the government is becoming toll-road-happy lately -- for example they want to make many of the existing major roads in Austin into toll roads. Needless to say, we're not happy about this ...
So anything that docks with the ISS has to go up 220 miles, and eventually has to be match the ISS's 17,000 mph velocity.
From what I can find, Progress 19 took off at 2219 GMT and docked with the ISS at 2358 GMT -- giving it about 1.5 hours in space. I suspect that most of this time was spent at approximately the ISS's 17k mph speed, so that would be 25,000 miles. (the actual figure would have to be somewhat less, since they're starting from rest, but I don't know how much less.)
I don't think that 25,000 frequent flyer miles will get you a free trip to Hawaii, but it's probably a nice start. :)
(Of course, I'm assuming that time actually spent on the ISS doesn't count. If it does, they'd get 400k miles/day -- which would probably get them oodles of free trips over the many months that they're up there.)
I guess the terrorists will just have to look elsewhere for their doomsday weapons.
Sorry, but this thing is not capable of spoofing a GPS receiver, not as designed. It's a receiver. Yes, if you added a transmitter, then maybe you could, but you wouldn't need this device to do it.
(Of course, in Astronomy, your results are generally considered `accurate' if they're within an order of magnitude.)
But seriously, you must be relatively new to PC games. Things got *way* better when Windows 95 came out and games started supporting it. Back before that, you needed a plethora of boot disks (or a cleverly constructed boot disk menu system) setting up various types of extended memory managers, TSRs, sound drivers, etc. If you wanted networked games, it got worse as you threw packet drivers into the fray.
You want to play Descent with somebody over the Internet? Can't do it, unless you payed for Kali, which routes IPX over TCP/IP. Doom was fun, but it originally did network calls via broadcast packets -- killing the entire network if more than a few people were playing.
Even after Windows 95, then 98, etc., things still got tricky. Do you have a 3dfx card? Then you want Glide -- OpenGL may not work properly. But what if your game doesn't have a Glide mode? Or what if you don't have a 3dfx card, but your game only has Glide support? (A pity -- I really liked playing Dethkarz with my friends, but it's 3D is Glide only. I could set up an older computer to play it again, but can't expect my friends to do so too ...)
Seriously, ignoring blips like requiring Steam (and an Internet connection) to play games like HL2, PC games are easier to get running right now than they have since they started requiring more than 640k of RAM and better than CGA graphics, and had to actually be *installed* on the hard drive. And as much as I enjoy bashing Microsoft, I also know that much of this `ease' is thanks to Microsoft and the semi-standardized APIs that Windows provides.
But no matter. It takes very strong magnets to erase today's high density media. Yes, you can erase (or at least seriously distort the data) a floppy or cassette tape with your average magnet, but to erase a DLT tape requires something much more powerful. As for a hard drive, I'd expect the required strength to be similar to that of a DLT.
Why do I know this? Because we upgraded our DLT drive to a model that puts more data (20 gb native vs. 10 gb native) on the same tapes. But the tapes needed to be erased before it would use the higher density (and the drive couldn't do it itself.) A standard bulk tape eraser would NOT do it -- it didn't affect the tapes at all, no matter how much we tried. Neither would a monitor degauser. After some investigation, I found that this wasn't expected to work, and a company that could erase the tapes for us for about $1/each. Worked nicely ...
If you need a full address, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500 is a good choice. As is 1060 W. Addison Street, Chicaco, IL 60613. For a phone number, 555-1212 is a good choice.
I was quite impressed. (The car, on the other hand, was shaking like mad and generally not happy about things.)
The Prius has a slightly smaller engine (1500 cc vs. 1600 cc) but the Rabbit didn't have an electric motor to help. Also, the Rabbit wasn't modified for speed in any manner, though it _did_ have a `Turbo' button on the dash. (When one pressed it, I pushed on the gas harder, creating a `Turbo' effect of sorts. Great times!)
Also, judging from the picture, it looks like two 9v batteries and two AA batteries. (If you need two different voltages, then you use a voltage regulator -- not rocket science here.)
As for the Altoids tins, Altoids tins are used in lots of home electronic projects. Here's another one. (And google will find you even more.)
Agreed.Case in point: Flying with my dad in his Super Cub. We're flying along, then suddenly the plane lurches down 50-100 feet in a second or so. A second later, the plane lurches back up 50-100 feet or so.
Had I not been wearing my seat belt, I'd probably have been hurt, possibly severely -- there's support braces right above my head, and I would have hit them *hard*.
(It's not certain what happened, but presumably it was a vortex created by a jet airliner, possibly above us in the clouds. We never saw the plane that created it, however. It also did no damage to the plane (dad had it checked out after landing), but it certainly sent everything not strapped down flying.)