The Hobbico Microsizers are actually about $30USD retail. Target ran a four day special on them for $20USD earlier this month but that's over. TOMY Bit Char-Gs can't be had after shipping in the US for less than $35 or so.
Anyway, there are a lot of potential rip-offs in this market. The cars advertised at the mall or sold in spam that come in the plastic bullets can be found for about $12 if you look hard enough -- these places are trying to sell them for $25+
There are also a lot of knockoffs from Hong Kong that mimic the packaging of the official TOMY Bit Char-G. Make sure that it says TOMY everywhere on the box, otherwise you might get something you didn't expect.
To find out more about micro RC, visit http://www.microrccenter.com
If you want to find out more about ZipZaps, DigiQ, iRacers, Bit Char-Gs, MiniZs, and a billion other micro rc cars, drop by microrccars.com and check out the forums.
dude, your url is a little off (it needs to be radiofreenation.com/store.html instead of radionfreenation/store.html. Even that's a redirect, but you get the idea.
I word for a somewhat large ad agency -- we do work for a soda company, a major European car company, a baby food company and a major watch company. Anyway, an encouraged and smiled-upon practice here is what they call "guerilla marketing," which is not limited to: spraypainting/chaulking walls and sidewalks with a client's product name in an attempt to fake "grass roots" support and buzz; engaging in "viral emailing" wherein an account executive or project director emails 10 - 20 people they know with product hype in the hope that those people will email 10 - 20 people, etc.; by camping in newsgroups that may contain our audience's demographic and posting about their "experiences" with a product, and, as seen recently, by posting in forums on enthusiast Web sites. Such practices are often done with the client's express consent and I can guarantee that other agencies do these things as well.
Anyway, the point is that ArtX is not the only company that is seeding "interest" in their products or services by posing as outsiders. At least at the firm I work at, it is actively encouraged.
Some posts have hinted at how future employers, insurance companies or angry neighbors could do you harm based on your medical records. Insurance companies already look at your medical record, especially for pre-existing conditions. I would surmise that they are already adjusting your premium based on your health history. In regards to employers, the United States has an American with Disabilities Act that "prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, programs and services provided by state and local governments, goods and services provided by private companies, and in commercial facilities." (taken from the Department of Justice Web site on the ADA, found here.) The question is what counts as a "disability," but in my department at a previous job (a law firm) disabilities included both physical and mental conditions, such as access disabilities, bipolar disorder, and fatal reactions to peanut oil. In the case of the peanut oil, the person used the ADA as a cudgel to curtail the use of peanut oil in the cafeteria, which got into the air system and into her lungs, etc. While the ADA is focused primarily @ people with access challenges, it has been used to cover other cases as well.
As far as neighbors getting the information and using it for e-vil, any misuse of medical information is just begging for a civil liability suit and possibly jail time. Just like someone using your social security number to get information about you, the use of your "identity" to access medical records under false pretense would probably be punishible by fine, imprisonment, or both.
My hangup with the whole system is, as someone has already said, the implementation of the whole thing -- the technical details more so than the social ones. While the medical system would (hopefully) be more secure than other online systems (read today's story about AOL, etc), it would be a high profile target for meddlers. The deletion or alteration of records by people posing as doctors would be disasterous. Beyond the "hacker" bugaboo, the potential for social engineering is pretty high. Most of the patients who will use this system to access their records are probably not going to be too computer savvy or (flashback to ISP tech support days) are going to forget that their password is their name spelled backwards with all the digits of their kids' birthdays tacked on @ the end. In order to make the system usable by the general populace, the methods for password and username retrieval are going to have to be pretty lax, ala your favorite Web-based email system. Blech.
As far as the actual registration, it's first come first serve, unless you have the unfortunate circumstance as sharing your last name with a major company and their name is a registered trade mark or service mark. I have registered my family's name as.net. It is not exactly a common last name, but I have gotten a few emails from other people outside of my core family. I didn't have a problem setting up email forwarding for them as long as they played by the same rules I set up for my immediate family. If your family's name is still available, register all the TLDs that you can afford.
On a similar note, you are wise to keep it to email-forwarding only. My site originally had Web space available for online diaries and what not, and that turned into both a technical support and content-cop nightmare.
This bizarre thing about EarthLink is that they won one of the first ISP vs. spammer court battles in 1997 against Cyber Promotions. Maybe they got tired of going to court? I don't receive much spam coming from an EL address, but your mileage obviously varies. Most of the spam I get comes from my Web hosting provider's "partners," not any particular set of ISP accounts.
Slashdot Mirror
The Hobbico Microsizers are actually about $30USD retail. Target ran a four day special on them for $20USD earlier this month but that's over. TOMY Bit Char-Gs can't be had after shipping in the US for less than $35 or so.
Anyway, there are a lot of potential rip-offs in this market. The cars advertised at the mall or sold in spam that come in the plastic bullets can be found for about $12 if you look hard enough -- these places are trying to sell them for $25+
There are also a lot of knockoffs from Hong Kong that mimic the packaging of the official TOMY Bit Char-G. Make sure that it says TOMY everywhere on the box, otherwise you might get something you didn't expect.
To find out more about micro RC, visit http://www.microrccenter.com
The fastest I've heard of a micro rc car was 56mph. That was a 1/24 scale modded ABC DTM car (modified with multiple batteries).
Learn more at www.microrccenter.com
If you want to find out more about ZipZaps, DigiQ, iRacers, Bit Char-Gs, MiniZs, and a billion other micro rc cars, drop by microrccars.com and check out the forums.
they're not two separate companies.
dude, your url is a little off (it needs to be radiofreenation.com/store.html instead of radionfreenation/store.html. Even that's a redirect, but you get the idea.
I word for a somewhat large ad agency -- we do work for a soda company, a major European car company, a baby food company and a major watch company. Anyway, an encouraged and smiled-upon practice here is what they call "guerilla marketing," which is not limited to: spraypainting/chaulking walls and sidewalks with a client's product name in an attempt to fake "grass roots" support and buzz; engaging in "viral emailing" wherein an account executive or project director emails 10 - 20 people they know with product hype in the hope that those people will email 10 - 20 people, etc.; by camping in newsgroups that may contain our audience's demographic and posting about their "experiences" with a product, and, as seen recently, by posting in forums on enthusiast Web sites. Such practices are often done with the client's express consent and I can guarantee that other agencies do these things as well.
Anyway, the point is that ArtX is not the only company that is seeding "interest" in their products or services by posing as outsiders. At least at the firm I work at, it is actively encouraged.
Some posts have hinted at how future employers, insurance companies or angry neighbors could do you harm based on your medical records. Insurance companies already look at your medical record, especially for pre-existing conditions. I would surmise that they are already adjusting your premium based on your health history. In regards to employers, the United States has an American with Disabilities Act that "prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, programs and services provided by state and local governments, goods and services provided by private companies, and in commercial facilities." (taken from the Department of Justice Web site on the ADA, found here.) The question is what counts as a "disability," but in my department at a previous job (a law firm) disabilities included both physical and mental conditions, such as access disabilities, bipolar disorder, and fatal reactions to peanut oil. In the case of the peanut oil, the person used the ADA as a cudgel to curtail the use of peanut oil in the cafeteria, which got into the air system and into her lungs, etc. While the ADA is focused primarily @ people with access challenges, it has been used to cover other cases as well.
As far as neighbors getting the information and using it for e-vil, any misuse of medical information is just begging for a civil liability suit and possibly jail time. Just like someone using your social security number to get information about you, the use of your "identity" to access medical records under false pretense would probably be punishible by fine, imprisonment, or both.
My hangup with the whole system is, as someone has already said, the implementation of the whole thing -- the technical details more so than the social ones. While the medical system would (hopefully) be more secure than other online systems (read today's story about AOL, etc), it would be a high profile target for meddlers. The deletion or alteration of records by people posing as doctors would be disasterous. Beyond the "hacker" bugaboo, the potential for social engineering is pretty high. Most of the patients who will use this system to access their records are probably not going to be too computer savvy or (flashback to ISP tech support days) are going to forget that their password is their name spelled backwards with all the digits of their kids' birthdays tacked on @ the end. In order to make the system usable by the general populace, the methods for password and username retrieval are going to have to be pretty lax, ala your favorite Web-based email system. Blech.
As far as the actual registration, it's first come first serve, unless you have the unfortunate circumstance as sharing your last name with a major company and their name is a registered trade mark or service mark. I have registered my family's name as .net. It is not exactly a common last name, but I have gotten a few emails from other people outside of my core family. I didn't have a problem setting up email forwarding for them as long as they played by the same rules I set up for my immediate family. If your family's name is still available, register all the TLDs that you can afford.
On a similar note, you are wise to keep it to email-forwarding only. My site originally had Web space available for online diaries and what not, and that turned into both a technical support and content-cop nightmare.
This bizarre thing about EarthLink is that they won one of the first ISP vs. spammer court battles in 1997 against Cyber Promotions. Maybe they got tired of going to court? I don't receive much spam coming from an EL address, but your mileage obviously varies. Most of the spam I get comes from my Web hosting provider's "partners," not any particular set of ISP accounts.