"Whether you're a CNN fan, or a FoxNEWS fan, you have to wonder how much of what we see is fake, or exaggerated."
Reuters Admits, Pulls Doctored Photos"
Huh? Just because the socialist news outlet has been caught in another lie, there is no redemption by equivocation with Fox, or any other source.
I prefer to get information and comment from those who honestly admit their bias, and not those who hide behind some phony shield of journalistic integrity.
http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html
I test a lot of products for Electro Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) for domestic (FCC) and CE (mostly EU) standards. I work as a consultant for people who are desperate to find countermeasures to get their product certified, and I assist in early product conceptualization to design for EMC compliance.
That work allows me to see things that most Engineers never get to witness. So, I'm going to offer a general explanation of EMC issues, and some general advice for DSL speed issues that my customers have found to be useful.
Products that are sold in the US for use in the home should have an FCC Class B sticker on the ratings label. Class A products are tested to different levels than Class B products. A product with a Class B label has a better EMC rating in many respects than a product with a Class A (Commercial/Industrial) EMC rating. Look at
I've found that some DSL modems come to me with Class B ratings, but in the anechoic test chamber, they fail horribly. They fail because they radiate far too much RF, and they fail because they are not immune from RF radiation from other products (or my lab noise generator).
So - what's my point?
For some reason, when DSL modems are bombarded by external RFI, the speed degrades rapidly. I've never taken the time to analyze the packets or the line signal integrity to see what the problem is, but its there.
So if you're not getting your rated speed with DSL, try a bit of troubleshooting. Assuming your voice quality over the copper is good, and you're not in a fringe service area, then you can assume that the problem might not be with the copper pair.
Getting rid of RFI (radio frequency Interference) is step number one. RFI can clobber your DSL modem through the air (radiated) or through the power mains (conducted). You have to eliminate both.
So you might want to start by turning off every electronic/electrical device in the house. Then get a reference speed test and log the results. Then start turning the house back on, bit-by-bit, and logging speed tests as you go.
You can also use your hand-held AM radio like direction finder to locate the source of some RFI. Tune it off-station, and walk around listening for RFI noise. You might just find that your speed was affected by some errant product radiating like a big Dog.
What is a major source of RFI in your home/office/lab? Those stinking light dimmers.
Semiconductor-based light dimmers radiate RF like the DEW line. Especially when the dimmer is partially on. They radiate the least when there is minimal switching at full brightness, or turned off.
Those fluorescent light bulbs that are supposed to save energy, radiate a lot of energy as well. I won't have them anywhere in my home or office.
Another source of RFI noise radiation are standard UPS's. They have immense AC power switching circuits that generates a huge RFI profile. Most use heavy filtering to get a FCC sticker. But not always. A lot of cheap electronics coming here may not have any filtering, and may have counterfeit FCC and CE certifications on their ratings labels.
The best UPS's to have near your computers are the big honkin' wire-wound (Ferrups is one mfg) old fashioned type. They make the cleanest AC and they generate the least RFI noise. They're expensive, but at least they weigh a ton.
Some battery chargers are another known source of RFI, so look there as well.
At the Bethel Park High School Library in 1977, they installed crude RFID tags in the spine of all of the books. As you checked out a book, the bold Librarian Gary Hutton would wanded the spine to deactivate the tag.
If they failed to deactivate the tag, or if you tried to steal a book, the system would sound an alarm, and Gary would be in an uproar. He might even have called the elderly Mrs. Simpson as backup. I recognized the 400Hz. tone as being a Mallory Sonalert.
Seeing as how we were already using the ASR-33 Teletypes with acoustic couplers in the Library to hack into local dial-up modem mainframes, I felt that a new hack was in order.
I had a Mallory Sonalert from a recent dumpster dive where my brother worked. I wired it and a 9v battery to a momentary switch and kept it in my coat pocket.
On occasions, I would situate myself in a library desk near the checkout. When Gary would wand a book, I would sound my alarm. Then, with a red face, he'd retrieve the book, and wand it again. I'd beep. He'd wand again. And again. Then, I'd stop before his blood pressure popped his head off.
Sometimes, I'd activate my Sonalert when Gary walked past the sensor gate. Sometimes not. I was having fun.
Why the long story? Well, just to let you know that hacking in a jovial sense can be a pantload of fun, and that you might not have to hack the internals of a system, to hack a system. That was 1977 folks - RFID (even in a crude sense) has been around for a while.
Our hacking was not malicious, it was fun. We never caused harm, and we never left tracks.
"Donate" two useless laptops to children who are living under totalitarian rule in backwards countries? Typical of the socialist-academic mindset.
Better to change the governments that keep these poor kids in peril.
Free market capitalism is hated by those who can't understand it, but it is the most morally correct method of bringing people out of poverty and raising their standard of living.
"Donations" to these countries are often sucked up by dictators and tyrants who use the proceeds to as a weapon for enslaving the populace. Until those barriers are eliminated, donations of any sort are simply enabling more repression and strife.
Certainly a case can be made that Sun had a potent marketing force and an attractive product line. But competitors were chewing away at certain segments of Sun's marketplace. And, Scott McNealy failed to manage his talent and products to fight off the competition.
Once the idea of failure set in, McNealy and others found an advocate in the anti-capitalist courts, lawsuit-lottery-lawyers, and the stooges of academia to use the police power of gov't to cripple the dominate player in the marketplace - Microsoft.
Correct - It is not a crime to dominate the market place.
But MSC never was, and could never be - a monopoly. The story shows another example of a writer who fails to understand the concept of a monopoly. MSC did not use force to demand that anyone use their products. They won market share in the arena of business competition. Had they used force, they could have been convicted of using force. But, they didn't and weren't.
If the writer could have done better than MSC, then HE would have won market share, and some namby-pamby crybaby (Sun, Netscape, etc.) would cry 'foul' and demand that the gov't equalize the market place under some Leninist "anti-trust" law. Follow that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, and decide who could ever be profitable, and who would be the arbiter of profit?
Vote with your dollars. If you don't like MSC products, buy some other brand. If you can't afford the other brands, blame yourself, or the other brands - not MSC.
Only gov't can produce a monopoly, because only gov't can use force to deprive you of your life, liberty or choice of products. Just like they did with telephone service back when you only had one choice in the market place. Back then, attempts to compete against the phone company was against the law.
What law allows MSC to force itself upon the public?
1. You have a free market available to you. If you didn't want a Wintel machine, you could have bought a Mac, or any number of others.
2. The fact you miss is that the Lenova is affordable for you BECAUSE it comes with MSC products installed. You even state your preferred s/w or OS vendors were out of your price range. If you feel screwed, go tell them!
3. Again, there is no law that forces MSC to be on any machine. MSC has never used force or fraud to impose their products upon you. You made the choice. Maybe you should go complain to your preferred s/w or OS vendor and ask them why they can't be as smart as MSC in making their product affordable and available to you?
4. I support your ability to erase and dispose of unwanted products on your machine. And there is no law to prevent you from erasing them at will, and installing what YOU want. That is the free market, the "Unseen Hand" that Adam Smith wrote about in 1776.
http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/won-intro.htm
Do you really WANT laws that would mandate the type of software that can, or cannot be marketed?
5. You made the choice to buy a product with full knowledge of it's s/w contents. And now you're complaining about it. Seems to me the problem is with your judgement, not with MSC or anyone else.
I mean no offense in my words, but I hope you learn to appreciate the free market, and the high morality of capitalism.
A Monopoly can only be created by Gov't. You might not like MSC products, and that's fine. There is no law that commands that you use ANYTHING made by MSC. So, there is NO monoply.
1. Microsoft has market share by virtue of hard work. A true monopoly can only exist with the use of force to quell competition. Gov't is the only entity we allow to use such force.
2. For decades, by law - there was only one phone company. And you could go to jail if you started your own phone company. That is a monopoly in the real world. Some of you socialists are too quick to use a term you can't comprehend. You've confused hard-work and marketing excellence with a monopoly.
3. To get the effect you desire, you have to use the force of law to limit the marketing of MSC products. Sounds good if your trying to catch up with MSC, huh? But what happens if you actually succeed, and YOU are suddenly forced to limit what YOU can earn?
Give them a hand, and help them out with getting their life back together if you like. Hopefully, they'll appreciate you.
But that will not fix the root problem. You've already been supplying them (and other strangers) with your tax money for decades, whether you know or not. The real issue is that most of NOLA has elected politicians based on race, and not based on an understanding of the Constitution that is there to guide us. Those voters look at the rest of the world as a big bank to be looted anytime they feel the need. And they elect politicians who will do their biding with corrupt and illegal means.
Google "Half of Louisiana is under water, the other half is under indictment."
You have no obligation to teach them anything. But they have an obligation to get off their enormous welfare butts and join the productive element of society. If we continue to coddle them, they will continue to breed more of the same misery.
Why can't we raise our expectations, instead of enabling another generation of sloths with no hope of joining the productive element of society? I say they can grow, and they can learn, and it's not compassionate or humane to expect or encourage anything less.
WE got here, so can they.
Even an islamist terrororist knows that a 9mm Glaser Safety Slug would bust his guts apart. Thugs and (like cockroaches) only respond to brutal force, not pussyfooting around with cute little tasers or door locks.
If they knew that the flight crew might be able to respond with deadly force, and ruin their plans, maybe they'd take up a new hobby.
http://mysite.elixirlabs.com/index.php?uid=12665&p age=1977
Even a leftist college prof can understand the following:
Learn the facts, Jack -
1. You can buy any s/w you like.
2. Nobody forces you or anyone else to buy MSC products, Sun products, or Mac products.
3. If you *think* that you are being forced to buy a particular product, and don't like it, then don't buy it. Go do something more productive with your life. You have that choice.
4. The only way a monopoly can exist is by the force of gov't. Remember Ma Bell, or are you too young, pompous and insular to learn the lessons of history?
5. Only gov't can use force. Many of you wish that gov't agents descend upon MSC, and destroy their market share.
6. Remember - gov't will eventually use armed force to make you comply with the law. That means that eventually, armed gov't agents will attack you if you fail to comply. If you suddenly got good at what you do, and everyone wanted your product over all others, how would you like to wake up to the barrel of a gun?
7. Market forces allowed MSC to succeed where others wimped out. In other words, we (as a group) gave MSC more money than any other, all with our own free will. That is what made MSC dominate.
8. The wimps who could not produce a product that we all wanted (Sun, etc), now want to use the courts and the force of gov't to take away market share from MSC.
9. The wimps that bought MSC products and who now have regrets about their own purchasing judgment also want to use the force of gov't to damage MSC.
10. Sure, I cuss MSC products everyday. I also cuss my Japanese car, and my cell phone provider. That does not mean I want to use armed gov't agents to attack them.
Do you?
I'll just buy something better and let the unseen hand of the market place decide who will dominate.
We still have the right to choose most of the products we buy with out much gov't intrusion. But if we leave it up to the brillant leftist-socialist-know-it-alls, we'll all have to buy what THEY want.
Hah! Good one DittoHead!
Unfortunately, if Professor Pointyhead is troubled by having to reap what he sows, we will be required to anty up more tax money to sooth his self-esteem.
Hugh DaMann
Obviously, the prof has little appreciation and a limited understanding of the free-market. If a chip mfg thought they could profit from his idea, they'd do it. We know that many mfg's have BEEN doing this for decades.
They don't need big-brother NSF gov't agents to tell them how to make a profit.
Another example of tax money forced out of the hands of those who earned it, and into the hands of those who beg for it, and little benfit arises from the foray, except for those involved in the money trail.
Slashdot Mirror
That work allows me to see things that most Engineers never get to witness. So, I'm going to offer a general explanation of EMC issues, and some general advice for DSL speed issues that my customers have found to be useful.
Products that are sold in the US for use in the home should have an FCC Class B sticker on the ratings label. Class A products are tested to different levels than Class B products. A product with a Class B label has a better EMC rating in many respects than a product with a Class A (Commercial/Industrial) EMC rating. Look at
http://www.fcc.gov/oet/fccid/help.html or
goto the fcc.gov page and search on FCC ID Help
I've found that some DSL modems come to me with Class B ratings, but in the anechoic test chamber, they fail horribly. They fail because they radiate far too much RF, and they fail because they are not immune from RF radiation from other products (or my lab noise generator).
So - what's my point?
For some reason, when DSL modems are bombarded by external RFI, the speed degrades rapidly. I've never taken the time to analyze the packets or the line signal integrity to see what the problem is, but its there.
So if you're not getting your rated speed with DSL, try a bit of troubleshooting. Assuming your voice quality over the copper is good, and you're not in a fringe service area, then you can assume that the problem might not be with the copper pair.
Getting rid of RFI (radio frequency Interference) is step number one. RFI can clobber your DSL modem through the air (radiated) or through the power mains (conducted). You have to eliminate both.
So you might want to start by turning off every electronic/electrical device in the house. Then get a reference speed test and log the results. Then start turning the house back on, bit-by-bit, and logging speed tests as you go.
You can also use your hand-held AM radio like direction finder to locate the source of some RFI. Tune it off-station, and walk around listening for RFI noise. You might just find that your speed was affected by some errant product radiating like a big Dog.
What is a major source of RFI in your home/office/lab? Those stinking light dimmers. Semiconductor-based light dimmers radiate RF like the DEW line. Especially when the dimmer is partially on. They radiate the least when there is minimal switching at full brightness, or turned off.
Those fluorescent light bulbs that are supposed to save energy, radiate a lot of energy as well. I won't have them anywhere in my home or office.
Another source of RFI noise radiation are standard UPS's. They have immense AC power switching circuits that generates a huge RFI profile. Most use heavy filtering to get a FCC sticker. But not always. A lot of cheap electronics coming here may not have any filtering, and may have counterfeit FCC and CE certifications on their ratings labels.
The best UPS's to have near your computers are the big honkin' wire-wound (Ferrups is one mfg) old fashioned type. They make the cleanest AC and they generate the least RFI noise. They're expensive, but at least they weigh a ton.
Some battery chargers are another known source of RFI, so look there as well.
I hope this helps.
Tom
If they failed to deactivate the tag, or if you tried to steal a book, the system would sound an alarm, and Gary would be in an uproar. He might even have called the elderly Mrs. Simpson as backup. I recognized the 400Hz. tone as being a Mallory Sonalert.
Seeing as how we were already using the ASR-33 Teletypes with acoustic couplers in the Library to hack into local dial-up modem mainframes, I felt that a new hack was in order.
I had a Mallory Sonalert from a recent dumpster dive where my brother worked. I wired it and a 9v battery to a momentary switch and kept it in my coat pocket.
On occasions, I would situate myself in a library desk near the checkout. When Gary would wand a book, I would sound my alarm. Then, with a red face, he'd retrieve the book, and wand it again. I'd beep. He'd wand again. And again. Then, I'd stop before his blood pressure popped his head off.
Sometimes, I'd activate my Sonalert when Gary walked past the sensor gate. Sometimes not. I was having fun.
Why the long story? Well, just to let you know that hacking in a jovial sense can be a pantload of fun, and that you might not have to hack the internals of a system, to hack a system. That was 1977 folks - RFID (even in a crude sense) has been around for a while.
Our hacking was not malicious, it was fun. We never caused harm, and we never left tracks.
Free market capitalism is hated by those who can't understand it, but it is the most morally correct method of bringing people out of poverty and raising their standard of living.
"Donations" to these countries are often sucked up by dictators and tyrants who use the proceeds to as a weapon for enslaving the populace. Until those barriers are eliminated, donations of any sort are simply enabling more repression and strife.
Certainly a case can be made that Sun had a potent marketing force and an attractive product line. But competitors were chewing away at certain segments of Sun's marketplace. And, Scott McNealy failed to manage his talent and products to fight off the competition.
Once the idea of failure set in, McNealy and others found an advocate in the anti-capitalist courts, lawsuit-lottery-lawyers, and the stooges of academia to use the police power of gov't to cripple the dominate player in the marketplace - Microsoft.
If the writer could have done better than MSC, then HE would have won market share, and some namby-pamby crybaby (Sun, Netscape, etc.) would cry 'foul' and demand that the gov't equalize the market place under some Leninist "anti-trust" law. Follow that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, and decide who could ever be profitable, and who would be the arbiter of profit?
Vote with your dollars. If you don't like MSC products, buy some other brand. If you can't afford the other brands, blame yourself, or the other brands - not MSC.
Only gov't can produce a monopoly, because only gov't can use force to deprive you of your life, liberty or choice of products. Just like they did with telephone service back when you only had one choice in the market place. Back then, attempts to compete against the phone company was against the law.
What law allows MSC to force itself upon the public?
1. You have a free market available to you. If you didn't want a Wintel machine, you could have bought a Mac, or any number of others.
2. The fact you miss is that the Lenova is affordable for you BECAUSE it comes with MSC products installed. You even state your preferred s/w or OS vendors were out of your price range. If you feel screwed, go tell them!
3. Again, there is no law that forces MSC to be on any machine. MSC has never used force or fraud to impose their products upon you. You made the choice. Maybe you should go complain to your preferred s/w or OS vendor and ask them why they can't be as smart as MSC in making their product affordable and available to you?
4. I support your ability to erase and dispose of unwanted products on your machine. And there is no law to prevent you from erasing them at will, and installing what YOU want. That is the free market, the "Unseen Hand" that Adam Smith wrote about in 1776. http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/won-intro.htm
Do you really WANT laws that would mandate the type of software that can, or cannot be marketed?
5. You made the choice to buy a product with full knowledge of it's s/w contents. And now you're complaining about it. Seems to me the problem is with your judgement, not with MSC or anyone else.
I mean no offense in my words, but I hope you learn to appreciate the free market, and the high morality of capitalism.
http://www.objectivistcenter.org/showcontent.aspx? ct=225&h=51
A Monopoly can only be created by Gov't. You might not like MSC products, and that's fine. There is no law that commands that you use ANYTHING made by MSC. So, there is NO monoply.
1. Microsoft has market share by virtue of hard work. A true monopoly can only exist with the use of force to quell competition. Gov't is the only entity we allow to use such force.
2. For decades, by law - there was only one phone company. And you could go to jail if you started your own phone company. That is a monopoly in the real world. Some of you socialists are too quick to use a term you can't comprehend. You've confused hard-work and marketing excellence with a monopoly.
3. To get the effect you desire, you have to use the force of law to limit the marketing of MSC products. Sounds good if your trying to catch up with MSC, huh? But what happens if you actually succeed, and YOU are suddenly forced to limit what YOU can earn?
Losers always hate winners.
See http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=866
Give them a hand, and help them out with getting their life back together if you like. Hopefully, they'll appreciate you. But that will not fix the root problem. You've already been supplying them (and other strangers) with your tax money for decades, whether you know or not. The real issue is that most of NOLA has elected politicians based on race, and not based on an understanding of the Constitution that is there to guide us. Those voters look at the rest of the world as a big bank to be looted anytime they feel the need. And they elect politicians who will do their biding with corrupt and illegal means. Google "Half of Louisiana is under water, the other half is under indictment." You have no obligation to teach them anything. But they have an obligation to get off their enormous welfare butts and join the productive element of society. If we continue to coddle them, they will continue to breed more of the same misery. Why can't we raise our expectations, instead of enabling another generation of sloths with no hope of joining the productive element of society? I say they can grow, and they can learn, and it's not compassionate or humane to expect or encourage anything less. WE got here, so can they.
Even an islamist terrororist knows that a 9mm Glaser Safety Slug would bust his guts apart. Thugs and (like cockroaches) only respond to brutal force, not pussyfooting around with cute little tasers or door locks. If they knew that the flight crew might be able to respond with deadly force, and ruin their plans, maybe they'd take up a new hobby. http://mysite.elixirlabs.com/index.php?uid=12665&p age=1977
Even a leftist college prof can understand the following: Learn the facts, Jack - 1. You can buy any s/w you like. 2. Nobody forces you or anyone else to buy MSC products, Sun products, or Mac products. 3. If you *think* that you are being forced to buy a particular product, and don't like it, then don't buy it. Go do something more productive with your life. You have that choice. 4. The only way a monopoly can exist is by the force of gov't. Remember Ma Bell, or are you too young, pompous and insular to learn the lessons of history? 5. Only gov't can use force. Many of you wish that gov't agents descend upon MSC, and destroy their market share. 6. Remember - gov't will eventually use armed force to make you comply with the law. That means that eventually, armed gov't agents will attack you if you fail to comply. If you suddenly got good at what you do, and everyone wanted your product over all others, how would you like to wake up to the barrel of a gun? 7. Market forces allowed MSC to succeed where others wimped out. In other words, we (as a group) gave MSC more money than any other, all with our own free will. That is what made MSC dominate. 8. The wimps who could not produce a product that we all wanted (Sun, etc), now want to use the courts and the force of gov't to take away market share from MSC. 9. The wimps that bought MSC products and who now have regrets about their own purchasing judgment also want to use the force of gov't to damage MSC. 10. Sure, I cuss MSC products everyday. I also cuss my Japanese car, and my cell phone provider. That does not mean I want to use armed gov't agents to attack them. Do you? I'll just buy something better and let the unseen hand of the market place decide who will dominate. We still have the right to choose most of the products we buy with out much gov't intrusion. But if we leave it up to the brillant leftist-socialist-know-it-alls, we'll all have to buy what THEY want.
Hah! Good one DittoHead! Unfortunately, if Professor Pointyhead is troubled by having to reap what he sows, we will be required to anty up more tax money to sooth his self-esteem. Hugh DaMann
Obviously, the prof has little appreciation and a limited understanding of the free-market. If a chip mfg thought they could profit from his idea, they'd do it. We know that many mfg's have BEEN doing this for decades. They don't need big-brother NSF gov't agents to tell them how to make a profit. Another example of tax money forced out of the hands of those who earned it, and into the hands of those who beg for it, and little benfit arises from the foray, except for those involved in the money trail.