The bill has passed through the Select Committee stage and is now ready for its second reading (from TFA).
That's a real Bill, on its way to being an Act. For those a little less familiar with the New Zealand legislative process, here's a handy Factsheet from the New Zealand Parliament.
That's the downside of being too close. The vertical beamwidth from the antennae will probably be too small as there would be gain, meaning that you need to be a reasonable distance away to start getting coverage. This is one of the reasons that cellphone coverage in high rise buildings is tricky -- there isn't enough signal directed upwards from ground masts, and masts that are on the top of buildings tend to not have enough down direction. Some clever use of phased arrays would solve this, but the sites are set up to serve the greatest number of people for the least cost.
Sounds like ultra-dense packaging like BGA have required PCB fabs to increase their capability. I haven't designed boards for the last 4 years, but it sounds like things have improved. 6mil was the limit for locally made boards back then.
Perhaps someone who works designing hearing aids can offer advice? I know there is a factory in Brisbane (where I am normally).
Maybe the price is determined by the benefit that it provides to people; the price is set by what it is worth, rather than what it costs.
Here's another potential reason: These things are very expensive to make! I attended a PCB design course and there were some design engineers from a local hearing aid company there and they were describing their constraints. No power, no room, ultra-reliable.
'Power' traces were 3mil and data traces were 1-2mil. For comparison, the smallest data trace we were using (limit of manufacture) was 6mil.
As well as CYA insurance there is going to be a lot of regulation by the TGA, FDA and so forth for a device that has medical benefit, and that testing is not free. I think another problem is that many (if not most) hearing aids would be paid for by insurance companies, so people are detached from the cost. The 'older' non-digital designs have probably paid off the in-house development costs and so the profit on each is all profit. The newer digital designs might be recouping the large investment costs and so the margins are higher.
If you think you can make one much cheaper, then welcome to capitalism -- start your own company and sell your hearing aids at a lower cost and capture the market.
PayPal Australia has an Australian Financial Service Licence (AFSL 304962), which means that they are subject to regulation in Australia. Their licence can be viewed here at ASIC.
Interestingly, they are a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service, so there is external dispute resolution. Is this the case for other countries? If not, then perhaps WikiLeaks should have its Paypal fundraising based in Australia (WikiLeaks ICT).
I use PaySmell only when I have to, which usually involves an ePay purchase. They have my CC details and that is it. For person to person transfers EFT with internet banking is the way to go. Now that PayPal is required for eBay sales I've stopped selling through eBay. The weekend classifieds work quite well, and for small items there is no charge from the major local paper.
Maybe in the USA all the generating companies own the powerlines too, but elsewhere in the world where there is no longer any vertical integration, the generators are all by themselves, with no links other than the public ones they pay for.
Too many managers like to look at what is happening at the power stations from their desk. IT are not too interested in running a separate network with separate PCs, so it all goes on the corporate network.
We have eight power stations, spread out over 3000+ km. Communicating between them and the three office locations is a challenge.
Your gas company probably changed its name because it was bought out by National Grid (http://www.nationalgridus.com/) who started off life as the operator of the electricity transmission network in England and Wales. The HV transmission system in the UK, and in NZ, is termed 'the national grid'. Privatisation took place in the UK and National Grid plc expanded its operations into gas as well as overseas investments in the US and Australia. Your local gas company got swallowed up, but I agree that the name 'National' does imply more coverage than a couple of states.
Acquisitions are also a reason to change names.
Given this story was in the local throw-away newspaper (dead tree version, not online) last week, it looks like/. is waaay behind the times.
Goes to show however that any image, when it is on the internet, can be used for all sorts of things!
I went from a Palm V to a Palm M505. I think that the screen alone was worth the move. The M5x5 screens were the only colour screens that could be seen in sunlight. For people who use their organisers outside this was brilliant. I now use it where I wouldn't take the T3 & and it is a great serial terminal for debugging microcontroller applications.
My T3 is a good organiser, but not great. If only the screen could be seen easily outside and was the thickness of a M505 it would be perfect.
Slashdot Mirror
The bill has passed through the Select Committee stage and is now ready for its second reading (from TFA). That's a real Bill, on its way to being an Act. For those a little less familiar with the New Zealand legislative process, here's a handy Factsheet from the New Zealand Parliament.
That's the downside of being too close. The vertical beamwidth from the antennae will probably be too small as there would be gain, meaning that you need to be a reasonable distance away to start getting coverage. This is one of the reasons that cellphone coverage in high rise buildings is tricky -- there isn't enough signal directed upwards from ground masts, and masts that are on the top of buildings tend to not have enough down direction. Some clever use of phased arrays would solve this, but the sites are set up to serve the greatest number of people for the least cost.
Perhaps someone who works designing hearing aids can offer advice? I know there is a factory in Brisbane (where I am normally).
Maybe the price is determined by the benefit that it provides to people; the price is set by what it is worth, rather than what it costs.
'Power' traces were 3mil and data traces were 1-2mil. For comparison, the smallest data trace we were using (limit of manufacture) was 6mil.
As well as CYA insurance there is going to be a lot of regulation by the TGA, FDA and so forth for a device that has medical benefit, and that testing is not free. I think another problem is that many (if not most) hearing aids would be paid for by insurance companies, so people are detached from the cost. The 'older' non-digital designs have probably paid off the in-house development costs and so the profit on each is all profit. The newer digital designs might be recouping the large investment costs and so the margins are higher.
If you think you can make one much cheaper, then welcome to capitalism -- start your own company and sell your hearing aids at a lower cost and capture the market.
I found that the game worked really well, but loading took a long time. I think I need to buy an accelerator cartridge for my C64.
PayPal Australia has an Australian Financial Service Licence (AFSL 304962), which means that they are subject to regulation in Australia. Their licence can be viewed here at ASIC. Interestingly, they are a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service, so there is external dispute resolution. Is this the case for other countries? If not, then perhaps WikiLeaks should have its Paypal fundraising based in Australia (WikiLeaks ICT). I use PaySmell only when I have to, which usually involves an ePay purchase. They have my CC details and that is it. For person to person transfers EFT with internet banking is the way to go. Now that PayPal is required for eBay sales I've stopped selling through eBay. The weekend classifieds work quite well, and for small items there is no charge from the major local paper.
Rupert might be around for sometime yet if his mother is anything to go by. http://www.mcri.edu.au/pages/our-people/dame-elisabeth-murdoch-100th-birthday.asp
Maybe in the USA all the generating companies own the powerlines too, but elsewhere in the world where there is no longer any vertical integration, the generators are all by themselves, with no links other than the public ones they pay for. Too many managers like to look at what is happening at the power stations from their desk. IT are not too interested in running a separate network with separate PCs, so it all goes on the corporate network. We have eight power stations, spread out over 3000+ km. Communicating between them and the three office locations is a challenge.
Your gas company probably changed its name because it was bought out by National Grid (http://www.nationalgridus.com/) who started off life as the operator of the electricity transmission network in England and Wales. The HV transmission system in the UK, and in NZ, is termed 'the national grid'. Privatisation took place in the UK and National Grid plc expanded its operations into gas as well as overseas investments in the US and Australia. Your local gas company got swallowed up, but I agree that the name 'National' does imply more coverage than a couple of states. Acquisitions are also a reason to change names.
Given this story was in the local throw-away newspaper (dead tree version, not online) last week, it looks like /. is waaay behind the times.
Goes to show however that any image, when it is on the internet, can be used for all sorts of things!
I went from a Palm V to a Palm M505. I think that the screen alone was worth the move. The M5x5 screens were the only colour screens that could be seen in sunlight. For people who use their organisers outside this was brilliant. I now use it where I wouldn't take the T3 & and it is a great serial terminal for debugging microcontroller applications.
My T3 is a good organiser, but not great. If only the screen could be seen easily outside and was the thickness of a M505 it would be perfect.