A bunch of years ago I read an article (Popular Communications?) by a guy who was cutting zone plates out of foil-covered plywood at the proper specs to focus geosynchronous TV-satellites (C-band?) onto an LNA.
He'd presented all the necessary math (pretty straightforward) and while I don't remember the performance specs I remember being pretty impressed how one of his plates fared (performance vs. cost) against a comparably-sized mesh-dish with all its mountings and hardware.
I wasn't into sat-TV at the time but if I'd had an amp/converter I'd have given it a go...
Yes, definitely consider Supercircuits. I've used their products for most of my security needs at home.
Reasonable prices, good service, and good advice from them - even to the point of "yes, [so-and[so]'s product is better for your application than ours is because...".
And, Macs aren't exactly bloatware free. Quicktime is a trial version with a nag screen to upgrade. Macs come with trial versions of Office (how much does Microsoft pay for that) and Omni outliner.
But isn't the Quicktime a full-feature reader (kinda like Acrobat - all the 'read' works while the 'create' doesn't)?
I've got an old-old still-sealed 2oz. bottle of radium paint from my Grandfather - still glows pretty well. And yes, it's kept in an appropriately-shielded container.
You could get books and magazines that let you make your own games.
Remember when BYTE was really a JOURNAL and not a magazine (and now it's nothing)? InCider? Kilobaud! (MORE 'zines should have their index on the cover - It Was Awesome! we miss you Wayne - we also loved '73) 80-Micro? The old Dr. Dobb's? And a BUNCH of others.
I can see the birth of a big market for hand scanners that will ping all the expected frequencies and let you know, if not what the chip is saying, at least whether or not it senses any chips.
I've not yet played with any RFID stuff in particular, but I can't figure it'd be too hard to simply sense the strength of a returned ping so you could locate the chip and deal with it.
Nail-on-the-head! The cost of the medium is NOTHING compared to the current cost of the interfacing.
You plug in a usb or firewire or CAT-x or RS-xxx with no problems at all but there AREN'T any optical interfaces built into any computers yet that _I_ know of. The only consumer-level optics I've seen so far are in audio (and higher-end stuff at that) and if you look at the optical/CAT-x converters you'll have quite a heart attack at the prices.
...that diamonds were "shiny and beautiful" because the cut pattern was optimized for the refractive index of the material and the final shape of the stone - so you'd get the most reflection & refraction - and that other cuts are optimized for the various materials used in fake stones to try to maximize the same effects.
Diamond is just a very ordered lattice, and it sounds to me like this mathematician is just out to get his name published.
A shop is NOT private property as long as it has a license and is a business doing trade with the public (services and/or products) - you can capriciously tell someone to get out of your house but you can not capriciously withold services or sales from individuals if you are a licensed business.
And if, as outlined in my previous post, you are libeled/slandered are you simply going to run away and let it stand against you? Or would you try to get evidence (i.e. personal recording) to clear yourself?
>> "No power in the 'verse can stop me"
When Kaylee said it, it was cute. (Just saw Jewel Staite on 'Atlantis' - still yummy!) When River said it, it was _scary_.:)
The device _I_ would like to see would be along the lines of a $59.99-$79.99 DVD player with a 6" diagonal screen (like I can buy now) that could read TXTs and RTFs and PDFs off of a CD. I, probably like many others, don't need to be able to USB-load everything interactively onto a device but can do perfectly well with carrying one or two CDs, CD-R/Ws, DVDs, etc. with LOTS of books on them. The storage is cheap and long-lasting and swappable/tradeable.
Give the device a USB port so I can hook up a pointing/scrolling device and I'll be happy (and it'll take the physical load off the hardware's buttons).
Presently, a cheap DVD reader can do a lot more than an expensive e-book reader - and I think that sucks.
So, then, a case where the owner may not have any surveillance: if said business owner says "you're white (or black), no service, no sale, get out, or get shot", and you come back with a cop who hears something different from the owner (e.g. "he looked like he was sizing the place up for shoplifting so I told him to leave") then WTF are YOU gonna do and how are YOU gonna prove what REALLY happened?
Places that have video surveillance may not have audio too - and a silent conversation onscreen won't prove anything one way or the other to a cop, depending upon your gestures/etc. - BUT remember that he'll note everything in his report anyway and then you can have that intimation of shoplifting on-record against you in their files.
Maybe the example's a little extreme, but anything's possible.
Slashdot Mirror
A bunch of years ago I read an article (Popular Communications?) by a guy who was cutting zone plates out of foil-covered plywood at the proper specs to focus geosynchronous TV-satellites (C-band?) onto an LNA.
He'd presented all the necessary math (pretty straightforward) and while I don't remember the performance specs I remember being pretty impressed how one of his plates fared (performance vs. cost) against a comparably-sized mesh-dish with all its mountings and hardware.
I wasn't into sat-TV at the time but if I'd had an amp/converter I'd have given it a go...
Yes, definitely consider Supercircuits. I've used their products for most of my security needs at home.
Reasonable prices, good service, and good advice from them - even to the point of "yes, [so-and[so]'s product is better for your application than ours is because...".
damn. my points expired yesterday. Can anybody spare a "mod:funny" for the parent?
"Yeah Sol, I see it. I see everything."
This is NO place to advertise for "Preparation A".
But isn't the Quicktime a full-feature reader (kinda like Acrobat - all the 'read' works while the 'create' doesn't)?
Which makes us wonder, in turn, why YOU wanted to buy it...
Another link on the same topic, with many links in itself: http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=660
I've got an old-old still-sealed 2oz. bottle of radium paint from my Grandfather - still glows pretty well. And yes, it's kept in an appropriately-shielded container.
mod parent Insightful
"pedantic" is the adjective; "pedant" is the noun.
Gotcha.
Remember when BYTE was really a JOURNAL and not a magazine (and now it's nothing)? InCider? Kilobaud! (MORE 'zines should have their index on the cover - It Was Awesome! we miss you Wayne - we also loved '73) 80-Micro? The old Dr. Dobb's? And a BUNCH of others.
There's nothing good anymore.
I can see the birth of a big market for hand scanners that will ping all the expected frequencies and let you know, if not what the chip is saying, at least whether or not it senses any chips.
I've not yet played with any RFID stuff in particular, but I can't figure it'd be too hard to simply sense the strength of a returned ping so you could locate the chip and deal with it.
Seriously - if you'd seen the image BEFORE you read the title or the article - what would have been the first idea to pop into your head? :)
A similar hyper-color image of the Moon (that makes a nice desktop/background): http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060907.html
Eh - color, shmolor. Rocks are rocks.
HOWEVER, I think it would REALLY kick ass if they could correlate the old photos with the new ones and look for signs of changes on the surface!
Mod parent 'troll' if you want - at least they didn't film it with a shaky-cam!
Must've lost track of a negative-sign somewhere in the calculations. Happens all the time.
Nail-on-the-head! The cost of the medium is NOTHING compared to the current cost of the interfacing.
You plug in a usb or firewire or CAT-x or RS-xxx with no problems at all but there AREN'T any optical interfaces built into any computers yet that _I_ know of. The only consumer-level optics I've seen so far are in audio (and higher-end stuff at that) and if you look at the optical/CAT-x converters you'll have quite a heart attack at the prices.
...that diamonds were "shiny and beautiful" because the cut pattern was optimized for the refractive index of the material and the final shape of the stone - so you'd get the most reflection & refraction - and that other cuts are optimized for the various materials used in fake stones to try to maximize the same effects.
Diamond is just a very ordered lattice, and it sounds to me like this mathematician is just out to get his name published.
I just use 355/113 and I'm good to .000008490916214% (1/11,777,292.05)
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/20/180205
A shop is NOT private property as long as it has a license and is a business doing trade with the public (services and/or products) - you can capriciously tell someone to get out of your house but you can not capriciously withold services or sales from individuals if you are a licensed business.
:)
And if, as outlined in my previous post, you are libeled/slandered are you simply going to run away and let it stand against you? Or would you try to get evidence (i.e. personal recording) to clear yourself?
>> "No power in the 'verse can stop me"
When Kaylee said it, it was cute. (Just saw Jewel Staite on 'Atlantis' - still yummy!) When River said it, it was _scary_.
The device _I_ would like to see would be along the lines of a $59.99-$79.99 DVD player with a 6" diagonal screen (like I can buy now) that could read TXTs and RTFs and PDFs off of a CD. I, probably like many others, don't need to be able to USB-load everything interactively onto a device but can do perfectly well with carrying one or two CDs, CD-R/Ws, DVDs, etc. with LOTS of books on them. The storage is cheap and long-lasting and swappable/tradeable.
Give the device a USB port so I can hook up a pointing/scrolling device and I'll be happy (and it'll take the physical load off the hardware's buttons).
Presently, a cheap DVD reader can do a lot more than an expensive e-book reader - and I think that sucks.
So, then, a case where the owner may not have any surveillance: if said business owner says "you're white (or black), no service, no sale, get out, or get shot", and you come back with a cop who hears something different from the owner (e.g. "he looked like he was sizing the place up for shoplifting so I told him to leave") then WTF are YOU gonna do and how are YOU gonna prove what REALLY happened?
Places that have video surveillance may not have audio too - and a silent conversation onscreen won't prove anything one way or the other to a cop, depending upon your gestures/etc. - BUT remember that he'll note everything in his report anyway and then you can have that intimation of shoplifting on-record against you in their files.
Maybe the example's a little extreme, but anything's possible.
Futurama? New New York? Ain't youse guys been watchin' it?