Er...if BPL is up in said emergency, and ham fails, then why not just use the BPL connection?
The problem is that the interference from BPL is likely to propagate worldwide, so let's say that a hurricane hits Florida (again), they'll have no BPL (or power, or phones, etc.) locally, but the interference will still affect not only the folks that they are trying to talk to (who are usually outside the affected area), but also those inside the affected area as well. As previously noted, if this were only a local problem it would be a somewhat smaller issue, but this has the potential to have truly global impact.
CW = Continuous Wave, which is the method most often used to send Morse Code. Generally speaking, CW=Morse Code in this type of context.
QSO = a conversation between two or more amateur radio operators. Note the QSO isn't an acronym, but rather a specialized code that's part of a larger set of Q Codes used to minimize sending common information during a CW conversation.
HF = High Frequency, and in the above context I believe the author is referring to the bands between 3 mHz and 30 mHz (though CW is certainly used on all ham frequencies)
QRP = As the author notes, the use of low power (as opposed to QRO, which is high power).
A couple of interesting thoughts occurred to me: First, as you continue to add features to cell phones, their battery life will diminish, because battery technology hasn't kept up with everything else. That's a problem. After the battery life of your swiss-army-cellphone moves down to the "few hours" range, you're not going to be happy.
But there's another side to this: The battery life between charges on an iPod is decent. Unfortunately, you can't (easily, and under warranty) replace the battery. Although a replacement battery for most cellphones seems to cost nearly the price of the phone itself these days, at least it is consumer-replaceable. Wouldn't it be amusing if the "iPod-killer" turned out to be the cellphone because of that?
In some countries (like the US) for some classes of license, yes. For others, no.
In the US, at least for the time being, some basic knowledge of Morse Code is required in order to use "long distance" frequencies (HF frequencies, loosely 30MHz or lower). There is another class of license that you can get that doesn't require any Morse at all, but has more limited privs.
Often the results of studies like this are based on which drone at the place being studied happens to fill out the form, and what value is placed on the study. I would imagine that only a limited amount of fact-checking is done after the surveys are returned, and (for instance) if the guy in the Public Relations office didn't know that students get web pages it won't show up that way on the returned form.
Of course, sometimes surveys are answered in such a way to make things better than they are in reality. An organization that I used to work for got consistently high ratings for its use of IT and their CIO kept showing up on "best" lists, when in fact a lot of what they'd claimed was more a figment of how they wish that it was than the way that it really was. However, the survey would come up with a high ranking, the CIO would get his bonus, and nobody seemed the wiser.
Why in my day, a VERY few of us had 300 baud acoustic coupled terminals in our dorm rooms, and we were THRILLED about it. (And in this case, I'm honestly not trying to be funny.)
I recently visited my alma mater RIT which was ranked #12 on the list and was pleased to see what's happened there in the >mumble, mumble< years since I graduated. I asked about the lack of a "must own PC" policy and they feel that while they certainly wouldn't discourage having one, they feel that (especially for computer science majors) they have more than enough lab equipment to go around. (I would be curious to know what the ratio of computer to students involved in likely-to-use computer degrees is as opposed to the ratio of all students, because RIT has a significant number of students in programs where the use of a computer is fairly unlikely, such as the American Crafts degree). Anyway, the professor that I spoke to said that they actually recommended that new students wait a few months after arriving before decide what kind of computer, if any, they need/want.
Of course, as noted in the article, connecting pretty much whatever you get will be easy to do from just about anywhere on campus.
To clarify a bit, here's a recent, real-world example: The recent hurricanes that hit Florida have kept a lot of hams very busy. The Hurricane Watch Net operated for many hours before, while, and after the hurricanes hit to provide valuable data from the affected areas to the National Weather Service. Because of the way that HF propagation works, the data from the affected area was typically relayed to a station far outside of that area (such as Texas, or Virginia), which was relayed back to the NWS National Hurricane Center.
As the parent mentions, VHF and UHF frequencies are primarily only good for relatively local communications, so the HWN operates on HF. (Primarily on 14.325 Mhz, for anyone who cares to listen in.) If BPL were deployed all around the country, yes, the folks in Florida wouldn't have had any problem receiving signals. Unfortunately, the folks trying to listen to them (who were in non-affected areas) would not be able to hear them because of local BPL interference.
I've got one of these (an iRiver HP-120) and I've found that their support is quite good. I had an "incident" with mine not long after purchase (it fell off a table and the plastic over the LCD cracked; it still worked fine, but the screen was hard to read). Since I assumed that this wouldn't be considered an in-warranty defect, I called to ask how to get it repaired. They just told me to box up the unit only (not the accessories) and send it back (with a supplied RMA #) and they'd ship me out a new one. I figured I'd get back a refurb, but they send me a brand-new unit (in the sealed box), complete with a second set of accessories.
From what I've seen on the MisticRiver http://misticriver.net/ forums, this type of support isn't unusual.
I'm not so sure that VoIP over Wi-Max would work that well. From what I've read about Wi-Max, it's not intended to be used while mobile, but rather is intended as a "last mile" technology for fixed devices. It might actually work OK, but apparently the technology used is happier when not trying to hit, a literally moving target.
Also, it's not clear how "roaming" would work, because of that (at least initially) indended purpose.
Re:CQ FD CQ FD CQ FD
on
Field Day 2004
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· Score: 2, Interesting
My club, the 10-70 Repeater Association will be operating 12A (yes, twelve stations) as N2SE if all goes well tomorrow morning from Mahwah, New Jersey. Hope to work you!
They're approaching this all wrong. Those who say that providing a list of "not-to-be-spammed" addresses to the spammers is equivalent to having the wolf guarding the henhouse are absolutely correct. However, providing an (inter-)national list of "sure, I'll take spam" list is fine. If someone isn't on the list, they can't be sent spam.
Distribution of the list would be easy: "Here Mr. Spammer, when you're done with this floppy disk containing all the existing email addresses who wish to be spammed, please pass it along..."
Not only is the First Amendment of the United States Constitution probably not applicable in this context to corporations, but it's certainly not applicable outside the United States. Further, as noted below, freedom of speech doesn't mean "freedom to do anything you damn please". The oft-mentioned statement about not yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre (unless applicable to the situation) would apply in this case, in that doing harm purely for some form of personal (or corporate) gain can't be hidden under the first amendment rights cloak.
You're right, 80GB isn't that much, but this kind of device actually works pretty well for internal software distribution with corporations. The firm that I work for has around 30,000 employees, and we use a whole bucketload of these dispersed in various locations. Since the type of information we keep on them is primarily run-of-the-mill corporate applications (both commercially developed and internally developed), the size works out to be a non-issue, and they have the advantage that we can configure them centrally and just send them out. If one breaks, we swap it out and send another one overnight. (I think in some cases, we have on-site "hot spares", precisely because they are so cheap.)
Of course, YMMV, and this isn't exactly cost-effective if all you need to do is to add another 80 or 120 Gb to a small LAN.
The real problem with the use of spreadsheets (like Powerpoint) is that they often give what I like to call a "false sense of authority" to information. People see the information, even "what if" information, as gospel, just because it's there. It's a version of the "it's in the computer, it must be right" syndrome that, taken somewhat to an extreme, causes otherwise reasonably intelligent people to believe that Bill Gates really will send you $25 for forwarding an email, etc. because "it's on the computer".
This first started to happen when the first laser printers became available, and you were able to create "publication-like" documents. Sure, printing out your mundane business memo with a bunch of unsubstantiated assumptions before got it mostly ignored, but when it was printed out to look like a book, people "believed".
The UK division of the organization I work for has already done this (banned USB memory devices), although they admit that enforcement of the policy is practically impossible. The US folks (where I work) haven't done so, and in fact, handed out "thumb drives" to all participants in a recent multi-country meeting that we had. The (non-geek) US folks thought the things were the greatest thing since sliced bread; the UK folks didn't quite know what to do.
Sure it needs its own name. Think about it: You're wandering down the street, you pass the first bar, which has a sign in the window that says "Now featuring that thing where you act out a movie in front of a green screen and make a fool out of yourself" and keep walking. You pass the second bar where it says "Movioke!" and run inside.
It's all about marketing.
Re:First sign that web based content is unprofitab
on
Webmonkey Closes its Doors
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· Score: 5, Interesting
The problem is not that web-based content is unprofitable, but that web-based content that is no longer of interest is unprofitable. As many others here have said, I too used to visit webmonkey a lot. But, I learned enough so that I didn't have to visit any more. Newer folks, at least in some cases, are relying heavily on "do everything for you" tools, so the site is not (or less) needed.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem is that the interference from BPL is likely to propagate worldwide, so let's say that a hurricane hits Florida (again), they'll have no BPL (or power, or phones, etc.) locally, but the interference will still affect not only the folks that they are trying to talk to (who are usually outside the affected area), but also those inside the affected area as well. As previously noted, if this were only a local problem it would be a somewhat smaller issue, but this has the potential to have truly global impact.
But there's another side to this: The battery life between charges on an iPod is decent. Unfortunately, you can't (easily, and under warranty) replace the battery. Although a replacement battery for most cellphones seems to cost nearly the price of the phone itself these days, at least it is consumer-replaceable. Wouldn't it be amusing if the "iPod-killer" turned out to be the cellphone because of that?
In the US, at least for the time being, some basic knowledge of Morse Code is required in order to use "long distance" frequencies (HF frequencies, loosely 30MHz or lower). There is another class of license that you can get that doesn't require any Morse at all, but has more limited privs.
Of course, sometimes surveys are answered in such a way to make things better than they are in reality. An organization that I used to work for got consistently high ratings for its use of IT and their CIO kept showing up on "best" lists, when in fact a lot of what they'd claimed was more a figment of how they wish that it was than the way that it really was. However, the survey would come up with a high ranking, the CIO would get his bonus, and nobody seemed the wiser.
I recently visited my alma mater RIT which was ranked #12 on the list and was pleased to see what's happened there in the >mumble, mumble< years since I graduated. I asked about the lack of a "must own PC" policy and they feel that while they certainly wouldn't discourage having one, they feel that (especially for computer science majors) they have more than enough lab equipment to go around. (I would be curious to know what the ratio of computer to students involved in likely-to-use computer degrees is as opposed to the ratio of all students, because RIT has a significant number of students in programs where the use of a computer is fairly unlikely, such as the American Crafts degree). Anyway, the professor that I spoke to said that they actually recommended that new students wait a few months after arriving before decide what kind of computer, if any, they need/want.
Of course, as noted in the article, connecting pretty much whatever you get will be easy to do from just about anywhere on campus.
As the parent mentions, VHF and UHF frequencies are primarily only good for relatively local communications, so the HWN operates on HF. (Primarily on 14.325 Mhz, for anyone who cares to listen in.) If BPL were deployed all around the country, yes, the folks in Florida wouldn't have had any problem receiving signals. Unfortunately, the folks trying to listen to them (who were in non-affected areas) would not be able to hear them because of local BPL interference.
From what I've seen on the MisticRiver http://misticriver.net/ forums, this type of support isn't unusual.
Also, it's not clear how "roaming" would work, because of that (at least initially) indended purpose.
My club, the 10-70 Repeater Association will be operating 12A (yes, twelve stations) as N2SE if all goes well tomorrow morning from Mahwah, New Jersey. Hope to work you!
Distribution of the list would be easy: "Here Mr. Spammer, when you're done with this floppy disk containing all the existing email addresses who wish to be spammed, please pass it along..."
Not only is the First Amendment of the United States Constitution probably not applicable in this context to corporations, but it's certainly not applicable outside the United States. Further, as noted below, freedom of speech doesn't mean "freedom to do anything you damn please". The oft-mentioned statement about not yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre (unless applicable to the situation) would apply in this case, in that doing harm purely for some form of personal (or corporate) gain can't be hidden under the first amendment rights cloak.
Of course, YMMV, and this isn't exactly cost-effective if all you need to do is to add another 80 or 120 Gb to a small LAN.
It's also just like pointing out the ever-present danger of Dihydrogen Monoxide!
Was the date that you were told this April 1, perhaps?
This first started to happen when the first laser printers became available, and you were able to create "publication-like" documents. Sure, printing out your mundane business memo with a bunch of unsubstantiated assumptions before got it mostly ignored, but when it was printed out to look like a book, people "believed".
The UK division of the organization I work for has already done this (banned USB memory devices), although they admit that enforcement of the policy is practically impossible. The US folks (where I work) haven't done so, and in fact, handed out "thumb drives" to all participants in a recent multi-country meeting that we had. The (non-geek) US folks thought the things were the greatest thing since sliced bread; the UK folks didn't quite know what to do.
It's all about marketing.
RIP, Webmonkey.