When you read this article you wonder how all of these problems can be possible with this product. It seemed to me that the reviewer was competent and very patient. It makes me wonder if there was any user testing and quality control in this process or was it someone's "good idea" and rushed to market? There are just too many electronic gadgets on the market that are poorly designed and frustrating to use.
Even digital signals start out as an analog signal via the oscillator. This is generally a very low powered signal. However, it is still there. You can, for example, use a scanner to listen to calls from your digital cordless phone by finding the analog spur. Even spread sprectrum phones are going to have some sort of analog signal somewhere in the transmitter front-end.
Happy Trails!
Erick
P.S. I am *not* an engineer, just a long-time ham radio guy so you engineers out there feel free to correct or amplify but don't flame me - I'm just trying to help.
Sorry for this post. I meant to do the following:
This article does a pretty good job explaining how to solve RF interference problems. It is also instructive as to how the interference occurs.
From my experience as a ham radio operator (KE3PB) I know that RF interference is certainly possible unless every precaution (and then some...) is taken. There can be harmonics, spurious signals, oscillators, etcInterference in this case is a very valid concern but one that can be adequately addressed if all parties work cooperatively together.
Take a look at the picture of Darl McBride in the article or even do a Google search. The guy looks the part that he plays in life: thug. I mean, really - he looks like some thug that shows up at your doorstep wearing a nice suit to collect a gambling debt. He is not terribly articulate which makes him appear even more to be the "thug" or "bully" of the I.T. world. Just an observation....
You may want to consider using a cell phone that opens up into a keyboard. (The Nokia 6800 is a nice choice). This would allow you to send text messages to your email address. Some of these keyboard cell phones are really cool.The Nokia 6800 opens into a QWERTY keyboard and works quite nicely. I've used it and was surprised at how fast I could enter text.
Pfizer is paying the fine and while the balance of your post is correct, it's superfluous. It really doesn't matter which year they "book" the fine - the money still comes out their coffers and they are likely to want to make it up.
and soon you are talking about some real money. I think they are sitting on about six billion in cash the last I heard. Still, they are looking at losing almost half of that to suits settled and suits pending with no end in sight to the litigation. So, it's not surprising that they will want to recoup some of it. Hey, I'm not saying it's right or that they even need to do it. But, any company that has to eat nearly three billion is going to want to do something. Somewhat relatedly, Pfizer agreed to a half billion this week to the FDA for mismarketing Neurontin and you can bet they will get it back through consumers.
What an excellent and well written article! It all comes down to this: The folks in India are using a simple system that seems quite secure and uses assembly language only. They had a national election where nobody traveled more than 2KM to vote. The hardware and software are of the K.I.S.S. school of thought. They (Indians) don't spend millions and millions of dollars to stamp out the remote possibility of someone bringing high-tech equipment into the voting booth and hanging out a while while they copy cards, hack the system, etc. inorder to cast more than one vote. Prior to reading this article I had no idea how complex and cumbersome the Diebold system is. God, no wonder there have been so many problems with it. All-in-all, the Indian solution is very elegant in comparison.
I'm a big fan of "alternative energy." More for the technology and gee-whiz factor thenenvironmentalism I suppose. Anyway, this is a very cool project. Here are the parts of the article that I found particularly interesting:
..switched on a 75- kilowatt generator.
On the panel, an electricity meter began running backward, indicating that power originating from a nearby poop-filled lagoon near the town of Marshall was feeding into PG&E's electric power grid.
..is expected to save the operation between $5,000 and $6,000 per month in energy costs.
A well-fed dairy cow produces 120 pounds of manure every day, or 40,000 pounds per year per animal.
..a single cow can emit 100 to 200 liters of methane per day.
Case is to be congratulated for providing an academic environment that also conjoins the commercial world where these students will end up when they are finished their studies. This particular student is well on his way to being both a successful engineer and a successful business owner. Everybody wins!
Sometimes folks come up with a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. Then, they try to reverse-engineer the problem. Anyway, from one of the articles:
"It's funny that you say that it comes out of nowhere," said Andrew "Bunnie" Hwang, the "minister of mobile affairs" at The Ministry of Mobile Affairs (MoMA), based in San Diego. "It actually fills a vacuum in the market," of an X86-based handheld, he said.
It actually gets better when he explains that you can pay to "unlock" the device (like hackers won't figure this out within a day or two...":
If a user wishes, Hwang added, he can purchase a separate SIM card "for a reasonable price" that will completely unlock the console, so users can download whatever content they wish.
I guess we will see what happens in the marketplace.....
If the manufacturers who produce the movie DVD's that I buy could GUARANTEE that the disc was virtually indestructable - that an errant scratch wouldn't ruin my $30 movie, then I might find it hard to defend software that copies that movie. But, I have eaten way too much money from DVD's and software discs as well, that died from scratches and other surface anomalies. I don't pretend to fully understand the laws that governs who owns what on my DVD. But, I do understand that if my disc is scratched, no one is going to give me another copy. However, I could make a backup copy and store it to protect myself. And, indeed, I do that now. I backup everything with DVD Shrink and they go into a special DVD book of all of my movies.
I may well be the only person on the planet (or at least the only one over 40) who never read the orginal book. I did pop over to the website to see if it tells the viewer anything about the movie but it does not. I don't think it does. I do know, from the site, that Douglas Adams died three years ago but I don't know who he is. The author? This appears to be a web site that is very much for insiders.....
I surfed over to webbyawards and sampled each site briefly. Honest-to-God, if this is the award winning best of the 'net then the 'net is in bad shape indeed.
This is beyond the pale. It's like the RIAA in the sense that there is an arrogance about what they can do while selling you a service. Here is the pertinent part of the docment that is labeled "The goals for the CAbleHome Management Portal include:"
* Enable viewing of LAN IP Device information obtained via the CableHome DHCP Portal (CDP)
* Enable viewing of the results of LAN IP Device performance monitoring done by the CableHome Test Portal (CTP)
* Provide the capability to disable LAN segments
I hope that at some point, we, as users, can vote with our wallets and stop this nonsense. The more we give into this kind of seller-bullying, the more we can expect.
Not only is this is a good idea in terms of some diversity over the radio waves, but it might get kids interested in electronics again like ham radio and a few other hobbies used to do:
"...offer how-tos for building transmitters and antennas..."
I also like what it can do for neighborhoods where it might enhance a sense of community which is sorely lacking these days. Either way, I think everyone wins and that doesn't happen very often (well, the NAB doesn't think that they win but anything that promotes radio eventually helps the NAB).
A Microsoft representative confirmed that the assigning of the patent to the company was a mistake..
The article does go on to discuss the huge inventory of legitimate tech patents that Microsoft has and how they plan to license more of same.
But the software giant has been a prolific patent generator in other areas. The company embarked on a campaign late last year to generate more revenue from its patent portfolio, offering to license widely used inventions such as its ClearType font technology and FAT storage format.
I think that the writer thought "Microsoft patenting Apple" was a humorous intro to Microsofts rather deep pile of patents.
This has been an extremely exciting contest, yet, I don't think that any of the competitors are going to be able meet the requirements to claim the prize:
The ANSARI X PRIZE will award $10 million to the first private organization to build and fly a ship that can carry three passengers 100 km (62 miles) into space, return safely to Earth and repeat the launch with the same ship within two weeks. Both flights must be completed by January 1st, 2005
I hope they extend the date and I also hope the prize money goes up. I think the major entrants have all spent more than $10,000.000 as it is. Still, I don't think they are doing it primarily for the money anyway.
That the sensor has never detected something doesn't tell you that it's working or not working - or am I am missing something here?
....Researchers from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search II (CDMSII) say they are pleased with their first results, which show that their detector is working.
However since it started running in November last year, the detector has not seen a single WIMP.
Then they decide to make a more sensitive detector so that they can "not" detect at an even higher level?
Physicists with the CDMSII experiment say they will now add another 24 crystals to the detector, increasing its sensitivity tenfold.
Okay, maybe I am being a bit silly, but, I still don't see how they can know the detector is working. I don't even know how the WIMP can make the thing "ring" once it, itself, is subject to the 1/10 degree above absolute Zero conditions. And then, somehow, with no data, they can extrapolate more accurately how much dark matter is in the universe. Well, they would say the lack of WIMPS is data but I'm not buying it. Enough/. folks have worked in research to know better than to buy into those kinds of statistical games (you can prove almost anything with non-parametric statistics).
Slashdot Mirror
Take care!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
P.S. I am *not* an engineer, just a long-time ham radio guy so you engineers out there feel free to correct or amplify but don't flame me - I'm just trying to help.
Happy Trails!
Erick
This article
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
On the panel, an electricity meter began running backward, indicating that power originating from a nearby poop-filled lagoon near the town of Marshall was feeding into PG&E's electric power grid.
A well-fed dairy cow produces 120 pounds of manure every day, or 40,000 pounds per year per animal.
These cows are pooping money!
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
"It's funny that you say that it comes out of nowhere," said Andrew "Bunnie" Hwang, the "minister of mobile affairs" at The Ministry of Mobile Affairs (MoMA), based in San Diego. "It actually fills a vacuum in the market," of an X86-based handheld, he said.
It actually gets better when he explains that you can pay to "unlock" the device (like hackers won't figure this out within a day or two...":
If a user wishes, Hwang added, he can purchase a separate SIM card "for a reasonable price" that will completely unlock the console, so users can download whatever content they wish.
I guess we will see what happens in the marketplace.....
Happy Trails!
Erick
Take care,
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Erick
Happy Trails
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
Happy Trails!
Erick
* Enable viewing of LAN IP Device information obtained via the CableHome DHCP Portal (CDP)
* Enable viewing of the results of LAN IP Device performance monitoring done by the CableHome Test Portal (CTP)
* Provide the capability to disable LAN segments
I hope that at some point, we, as users, can vote with our wallets and stop this nonsense. The more we give into this kind of seller-bullying, the more we can expect.
Happy Trails!
Erick
"...offer how-tos for building transmitters and antennas..."
I also like what it can do for neighborhoods where it might enhance a sense of community which is sorely lacking these days. Either way, I think everyone wins and that doesn't happen very often (well, the NAB doesn't think that they win but anything that promotes radio eventually helps the NAB).
Happy Trails!
Erick
A Microsoft representative confirmed that the assigning of the patent to the company was a mistake..
The article does go on to discuss the huge inventory of legitimate tech patents that Microsoft has and how they plan to license more of same.
But the software giant has been a prolific patent generator in other areas. The company embarked on a campaign late last year to generate more revenue from its patent portfolio, offering to license widely used inventions such as its ClearType font technology and FAT storage format.
I think that the writer thought "Microsoft patenting Apple" was a humorous intro to Microsofts rather deep pile of patents.
Happy Trails!
Erick
The ANSARI X PRIZE will award $10 million to the first private organization to build and fly a ship that can carry three passengers 100 km (62 miles) into space, return safely to Earth and repeat the launch with the same ship within two weeks. Both flights must be completed by January 1st, 2005
I hope they extend the date and I also hope the prize money goes up. I think the major entrants have all spent more than $10,000.000 as it is. Still, I don't think they are doing it primarily for the money anyway.
Happy Trails!
Erick
However since it started running in November last year, the detector has not seen a single WIMP.
Then they decide to make a more sensitive detector so that they can "not" detect at an even higher level?
Physicists with the CDMSII experiment say they will now add another 24 crystals to the detector, increasing its sensitivity tenfold.
Okay, maybe I am being a bit silly, but, I still don't see how they can know the detector is working. I don't even know how the WIMP can make the thing "ring" once it, itself, is subject to the 1/10 degree above absolute Zero conditions. And then, somehow, with no data, they can extrapolate more accurately how much dark matter is in the universe. Well, they would say the lack of WIMPS is data but I'm not buying it. Enough /. folks have worked in research to know better than to buy into those kinds of statistical games (you can prove almost anything with non-parametric statistics).
Happy Trails!
Erick