The very first amateur radio satelite, OSCAR-I used tape antennas back in 1961. The antennas were made out of steel measuring tapes because they could be folded back against the satelite during launch and would spring into position as the satelite separated from the rocket. The tapes are 1/4 wavelength long, which at 2 meters (145 mhz) is about 19" long. Most satelites operate at higher frequencies, though the amateur 10 meter band at 28mhz is also available for satelite use. You do the math to see how long those antennas would be....(75/frequency in mhz = length in meters for a 1/4 wave antenna)
Have your webpages check to see what browser the client is using, and if it is IE7 (or hey, ANY version of IE) refuse to render the page and pop up a link to Mozilla or Firefox and tell the user that his current browser is broken, and a plague on the web, and that he should follow the given link and download a REAL broswer if he (or she) wants to see your content. (turn around is fair play I say!)
was that their largest rocket at the time, the N1, had a bad habit of blowing up on the pad. They tried twice to launch it. The first time it got a few thousand feet up and exploded. They worked on the problems and a few days before our Apollo-11 launched they put TWO N1's on launch pads. They would try launching an unmaned one first, and if it worked they would have tried to beat us to the moon with the second.
The N1 had something like 36 engines on the first stage. A few seconds into the launch a computer glitch shut down ALL of the engines, except one. The rocket fell back to the pad and exploded with a force of a small nuke, taking out the second N1 on the other launch pad. The blast killed workers on the ground in the block house, and our sensors that detect underground atomic testing went off alerting the CIA.
That was the last the the Russians tried to go to the moon. They are reported to still have a moonship and an N1 rocket on display someplace.
When I first read the headline I scratched my head. Why would a dummy antenna be illegal?
Heathkit sold a dummy antenna (really a 1000w 50ohm resistor in a paint can filled with transformer oil) back in the 60's and 70's for hams to use for testing transmitters without causing interference, the device was called a 'cantenna'. Guess the word now has a new meaning.
BTW since hams also have use of the 2.4ghz band, this new cantenna would be LEGAL for sale and use by hams in this band.
One small fly in the mix. Digital signals require a good mast mounted outside antenna well aimed at the signal source. Rabbit ears need not apply.
Well here in the S.E. US we have problems this time of year with HURRICANES that tend to disrupt power and blow down outdoor antennas. I can receive something on a battery operated TV right now with a monopole (rabbit EAR?) antenna (OK a bit snowy picture, but usable). After 2009, that won't work anymore. I'd like to see the changeover with a provision that in the case of an emergency, the stations MUST REVERT BACK to NTSC ANALOG broadcasting so people who are in shelters or home in the dark can still get the news. (yes there is still radio, and some radios can get TV,.... wait they can't get DIGITAL TV).
The ARRL and other Amateur Radio groups have been the most vocal against BPL, but the fact is that it can and will interfere with the AM broadcast band, the low end of the VHF TV broadcast band, Aircraft communications, Military and other users of shortwave, garage door openers, etc. It's a technology that won't allow upgrades in speed, and will proably (in most cases) be no faster than ISDN after all the required notch filters get added.
Some power companies are (gradually) adding fiber optic cables to their overhead lines to carry their own broadband networks and are using WiFi or other short range wireless to deliver the final mile to BPL customers. In other words BPL in name only, actually a 'clean' technology.
First of all GET OFF HIGH HORSE. (Hope you didn't expect to be welcomed with open arms by your fellow workers. Look up the meaning of 'scab' sometime.) Foreign workers like yourself are here by the grace of our government who listened to the greedy corporations that cried they couldn't find qualified workers during a time of high unemployment (and the government believed their bullshit). But after saying that.... I agree that the most qualified workers should be hired, but to not even consider the existing labor pool so they can get wetbacks to work for slave labor rates is something our constitution should not allow. Level the playing field and we'll bust this myth that American workers are lazy and not competent.
By being in this country you may be taking away jobs from US citizens. So you SHOULD pay unemployment tax (actually your EMPLOYER pays it) so the citizen you might displace can collect.
and deserve to be locked. OTHO put the web page in a frame, with the 'meat' in the middle and the ads in side collums and that will be tolerated. (Looks just like the newspaper).
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are far apart and the man would not be working in one town and living n another. Yes he could be, if he were a scientist working on a top secret project for weeks at a time in a secret bunker building. The man might have even been a political prisoner, and was 'liberated' by the bombing.
I've heard a story that may be just an Urban legand, about a Japanese man who survived the Hiroshima bomb by being in an underground lab at the time. After the explosion, he walked out unharmed and seeing the ruins of his former place of employment headed home to his family. He arrived home in Nagasaki just in time to survive the SECOND bomb in the basement of his home with his family!!! (Oh no not AGAIN!!!)
There's no well-supported digital equivalent to a negative (as reasonable proof of ownership), so retailers are defensively resorting to near paranoia to stay out of court." Actually there IS a way. 1: camera makers burn a unique serial number at least 1024 bits long into the camera's firmware. 2: camera writes this serial number into each image file as a tag field. 3: Bring your camera along with your files, camera has a menu on the lcd to display the serial number. 4: if the number on the camera matches the number in the tag field on the file, then it must be your camera that took the pictures. 5: Bring the original camera media NOT a CD 6: media also would have a serial number and the camera would record this number into an eeprom. Camera would keep track of last 'n' media serial numbers used. 7: second proof is now the camera showing that the media in question was actually in the camera.
OK existing hw doesn't comply. Also it isn't foolproof (can be faked) but would be beyond the average camera user's ability to hack.
Also the store could have the user sign a legal document which would make the customer legally responsible for any copyright violation. IANAL, but surly a good shyster could write an iron-clad countract that would hold up in a court of law.
Guess we may be out of luck on Linux since we don't have a WMA codeic. Will this CD even play on a car cd player -or- maybe it isn't even an audio cd at all.
The ipod mini's batteries CAN be replaced by the user. I've seen the instructions for opening the ipod mini and it doesn't require special lock picks like the full size ipod. A new battery will set you back about $30, OK it's not an el-cheapo like a pair of AA's but if you want a small sized unit like the Ipod mini you have to use special parts.
The Ipod mini uses a type II sized compact flash micro disk (different package though). If Apple had used an actual type IICF micro disk and had a slot to load it, that would have been more like what you wanted. But note that the Ipod's firmware is ON the disk drive (so that not all of the 4 or 6 gb is actually available for your tunes).
I think we are seeing the beginning of Apple moving from a hardware company to a software company. By moving to Intel chips, they are opening up the door to buying more and more off the shelf hardware for their computers. Soon, they will be out sourcing their computer hardware, and just be putting their name on it. They've already adopted standard hardware intefaces (pci, ide, scsi, etc) having dropped their own (nubus). They also will become a media company (ipod, itunes), and will probably be adding video soon.
"Crack in the World"? Where they drilled to the earths core and caused the mantle to crack. A huge chunk of the earth broke away and formed a new moon. OK, in the movie they did use an Atomic Bomb to break through when the drill broke, but still..... I'm getting worried.
If game consoles replace PC gaming, then developement of PC graphics cards may stop. At least it seems that games are the driving force behind the development of better and better PC graphics cards.
The second generation Ipod Mini has an improved chipset that uses much less power. It's batteries will last abot 50% longer. That's what you get for being the first on the block to run out and buy something.
The Ipod Mini is very easy to open up and replace the battery (in comparison to the full size Ipod). You can find instructions on the web, as well as replacement batteries that have 50% - 100% the capacity of the factory original ones.
and you will see something interresting. They are selling computer packages from HP and Compaq (yeah same shit, different name) that look real similar to packages sold by CompUSA and Office Depot, EXCEPT that the LCD monitor was replaced by a CRT. Why? To get the price point down (hey, that's Wal*Mart's middle name). CRT's ain't dead, they are becoming low end. Still the contrast ratio on the worst CRT is at least double that of a good LCD, and the refresh rate is higher. Not to mention off axis it still looks good. LCD's have a way to go. Before they get there, OLEDS will drop in price and THAT will be the technology to watch.
Sirius's artist and song title fields are at least 3 times longer than XM's, IIRC. Actually both Sirius and XM provide long song and artist names but few receivers make use of them. So the software in your radio may be the problem. XM does seem to have a problem with their name fields though, as they don't null terminate the strings so the receiver has to make a guess as to where the end of the string is. The company I work for is building a new product that will have BOTH Sirius and XM modules as options. We can display the long names for BOTH services, but on XM we often see junk at the end of the stings due to the way they pad and terminate the data. THAT may be why many receivers don't support long names on XM.
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The very first amateur radio satelite, OSCAR-I used tape antennas back in 1961. The antennas were made out of steel measuring tapes because they could be folded back against the satelite during launch and would spring into position as the satelite separated from the rocket. The tapes are 1/4 wavelength long, which at 2 meters (145 mhz) is about 19" long. Most satelites operate at higher frequencies, though the amateur 10 meter band at 28mhz is also available for satelite use. You do the math to see how long those antennas would be....(75/frequency in mhz = length in meters for a 1/4 wave antenna)
Have your webpages check to see what browser the client is using, and if it is IE7 (or hey, ANY version of IE) refuse to render the page and pop up a link to Mozilla or Firefox and tell the user that his current browser is broken, and a plague on the web, and that he should follow the given link and download a REAL broswer if he (or she) wants to see your content. (turn around is fair play I say!)
The FBI can get a warrant to track somebody by using LOJACK, which many cars already have.
was that their largest rocket at the time, the N1, had a bad habit of blowing up on the pad. They tried twice to launch it. The first time it got a few thousand feet up and exploded. They worked on the problems and a few days before our Apollo-11 launched they put TWO N1's on launch pads. They would try launching an unmaned one first, and if it worked they would have tried to beat us to the moon with the second.
The N1 had something like 36 engines on the first stage. A few seconds into the launch a computer glitch shut down ALL of the engines, except one. The rocket fell back to the pad and exploded with a force of a small nuke, taking out the second N1 on the other launch pad. The blast killed workers on the ground in the block house, and our sensors that detect underground atomic testing went off alerting the CIA.
That was the last the the Russians tried to go to the moon. They are reported to still have a moonship and an N1 rocket on display someplace.
When I first read the headline I scratched my head. Why would a dummy antenna be illegal?
Heathkit sold a dummy antenna (really a 1000w 50ohm resistor in a paint can filled with transformer oil) back in the 60's and 70's for hams to use for testing transmitters without causing interference, the device was called a 'cantenna'. Guess the word now has a new meaning.
BTW since hams also have use of the 2.4ghz band, this new cantenna would be LEGAL for sale and use by hams in this band.
One small fly in the mix. Digital signals require a good mast mounted outside antenna well aimed at the signal source. Rabbit ears need not apply.
.... wait they can't get DIGITAL TV).
Well here in the S.E. US we have problems this time of year with HURRICANES that tend to disrupt power and blow down outdoor antennas. I can receive something on a battery operated TV right now with a monopole (rabbit EAR?) antenna (OK a bit snowy picture, but usable). After 2009, that won't work anymore. I'd like to see the changeover with a provision that in the case of an emergency, the stations MUST REVERT BACK to NTSC ANALOG broadcasting so people who are in shelters or home in the dark can still get the news. (yes there is still radio, and some radios can get TV,
The ARRL and other Amateur Radio groups have been the most vocal against BPL, but the fact is that it can and will interfere with the AM broadcast band, the low end of the VHF TV broadcast band, Aircraft communications, Military and other users of shortwave, garage door openers, etc. It's a technology that won't allow upgrades in speed, and will proably (in most cases) be no faster than ISDN after all the required notch filters get added.
Some power companies are (gradually) adding fiber optic cables to their overhead lines to carry their own broadband networks and are using WiFi or other short range wireless to deliver the final mile to BPL customers. In other words BPL in name only, actually a 'clean' technology.
until the day Microsoft is out of business and Bill and Steve are cold in their graves.
First of all GET OFF HIGH HORSE. (Hope you didn't expect to be welcomed with open arms by your fellow workers. Look up the meaning of 'scab' sometime.) Foreign workers like yourself are here by the grace of our government who listened to the greedy corporations that cried they couldn't find qualified workers during a time of high unemployment (and the government believed their bullshit).
But after saying that....
I agree that the most qualified workers should be hired, but to not even consider the existing labor pool so they can get wetbacks to work for slave labor rates is something our constitution should not allow. Level the playing field and we'll bust this myth that American workers are lazy and not competent.
By being in this country you may be taking away jobs from US citizens. So you SHOULD pay unemployment tax (actually your EMPLOYER pays it) so the citizen you might displace can collect.
and deserve to be locked. OTHO put the web page in a frame, with the 'meat' in the middle and the ads in side collums and that will be tolerated. (Looks just like the newspaper).
ohh, you mean crackers! theres a big difference.. and I thought the author was smart enough to know the difference.
Well hacker isn't the only word to lose it's original benign meaning over the years.
(another one would be gay).
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are far apart and the man would not be working in one town and living n another.
Yes he could be, if he were a scientist working on a top secret project for weeks at a time in a secret bunker building. The man might have even been a political prisoner, and was 'liberated' by the bombing.
I've heard a story that may be just an Urban legand, about a Japanese man who survived the Hiroshima bomb by being in an underground lab at the time. After the explosion, he walked out unharmed and seeing the ruins of his former place of employment headed home to his family. He arrived home in Nagasaki just in time to survive the SECOND bomb in the basement of his home with his family!!! (Oh no not AGAIN!!!)
There's no well-supported digital equivalent to a negative (as reasonable proof of ownership), so retailers are defensively resorting to near paranoia to stay out of court."
Actually there IS a way.
1: camera makers burn a unique serial number at least 1024 bits long into the camera's firmware.
2: camera writes this serial number into each image file as a tag field.
3: Bring your camera along with your files, camera has a menu on the lcd to display the serial number.
4: if the number on the camera matches the number in the tag field on the file, then it must be your camera that took the pictures.
5: Bring the original camera media NOT a CD
6: media also would have a serial number and the camera would record this number into an eeprom. Camera would keep track of last 'n' media serial numbers used.
7: second proof is now the camera showing that the media in question was actually in the camera.
OK existing hw doesn't comply. Also it isn't foolproof (can be faked) but would be beyond the average camera user's ability to hack.
Also the store could have the user sign a legal document which would make the customer legally responsible for any copyright violation. IANAL, but surly a good shyster could write an iron-clad countract that would hold up in a court of law.
Actually I will find a picture of De Rat, blow it up and print it on cardboard stock backed with cork to use as a dartboard target.
Guess we may be out of luck on Linux since we don't
have a WMA codeic. Will this CD even play on a car cd player -or- maybe it isn't even an audio cd at all.
The ipod mini's batteries CAN be replaced by the user. I've seen the instructions for opening the ipod mini and it doesn't require special lock picks like the full size ipod. A new battery will set you back about $30, OK it's not an el-cheapo like a pair of AA's but if you want a small sized unit like the Ipod mini you have to use special parts.
The Ipod mini uses a type II sized compact flash micro disk (different package though). If Apple had used an actual type IICF micro disk and had a slot to load it, that would have been more like what you wanted. But note that the Ipod's firmware is ON the disk drive (so that not all of the 4 or 6 gb is actually available for your tunes).
I think we are seeing the beginning of Apple moving
from a hardware company to a software company.
By moving to Intel chips, they are opening up the door to buying more and more off the shelf hardware for their computers. Soon, they will be out sourcing their computer hardware, and just be putting their name on it. They've already adopted standard hardware intefaces (pci, ide, scsi, etc) having dropped their own (nubus). They also will become a media company (ipod, itunes), and will probably be adding video soon.
needs work! The latest builds all failed!
"Crack in the World"? ..... I'm getting worried.
Where they drilled to the earths core and caused the mantle to crack. A huge chunk of the earth broke away and formed a new moon. OK, in the movie they did use an Atomic Bomb to break through when the drill broke, but still
If game consoles replace PC gaming, then developement of PC graphics cards may stop.
At least it seems that games are the driving force behind the development of better and better PC graphics cards.
The second generation Ipod Mini has an improved chipset that uses much less power. It's batteries will last abot 50% longer. That's what you get for being the first on the block to run out and buy something.
The Ipod Mini is very easy to open up and replace the battery (in comparison to the full size Ipod). You can find instructions on the web, as well as replacement batteries that have 50% - 100% the capacity of the factory original ones.
and you will see something interresting. They are selling computer packages from HP and Compaq (yeah same shit, different name) that look real similar to packages sold by CompUSA and Office Depot, EXCEPT that the LCD monitor was replaced by a CRT. Why? To get the price point down (hey, that's Wal*Mart's middle name). CRT's ain't dead, they are becoming low end. Still the contrast ratio on the worst CRT is at least double that of a good LCD, and the refresh rate is higher. Not to mention off axis it still looks good. LCD's have a way to go. Before they get there, OLEDS will drop in price and THAT will be the technology to watch.
Sirius's artist and song title fields are at least 3 times longer than XM's, IIRC.
Actually both Sirius and XM provide long song and artist names but few receivers make use of them. So the software in your radio may be the problem. XM does seem to have a problem with their name fields though, as they don't null terminate the strings so the receiver has to make a guess as to where the end of the string is. The company I work for is building a new product that will have BOTH Sirius and XM modules as options. We can display the long names for BOTH services, but on XM we often see junk at the end of the stings due to the way they pad and terminate the data. THAT may be why many receivers don't support long names on XM.