Posts by Cortland Richmond
139 posts • joined Monday 4th June 2007 04:08 GMT
Public comment required by US law
The Administrative Procedures Act requires each Rulemaking be open to public comment. This does not mean comments will be listened to; comment is required even if Congress has put what it wants the FCC to do into a Bill made Law -- or made veiled and not so veiled threats to abolish the FCC, the BPL (PLC to you chaps) proceedings being an example of the latter process. But public comment there was, is and will be. Amen.
FWIW, Physics is no obstacle to US lawmakers.
Oh goody!
And do the Worshipful Company enjoy the right to carry swords in the City of London? Brings new... intensity to Net Neutrality! Nine dead after committee meeting, etc. Equal THAT,BOFH!
Government does it!
One may find addresses and names of FCC licensees on that agency's site. Shall that likewise require an opt-out? Because when one has radio interference, it is quite good to be be to contact the source and resolve it.
Posted in Power management and carbon footprints
Reduced CO2 footprint IT dep't
Why did I just flash on Bob Cratchit on a stool, doing his ledgers by the light of one (small) candle?
Slithy Toves?
Some years ago, an online acquaintance posted that he'd a candidate text for bumper stickers:
"I'll worry about terrorists when I can stop worrying about motorists."
Posted in US Army considered attack on Wikileaks
In the USA
Whistle-blowers -- people who expose unlawful, unethical or in some cases harmful actions by employers or organizations -- are to some extend protected by law. It is natural that classified or sensitive information should be held dear by those organizations who generate or use it, and if they want it to remain secret, they can and should act -- as the laws allow -- to keep it so. Other countries may not be so limited in what they can do.
"Isn't it true you've been saying Comrade Chernenko acts like he's dead?"
"He acts like it!"
"Yes -- but that's a State Secret!"
The whole Internet is a source of uncorroborated and fabricated information, some of which may indeed contain secrets *someone* wants kept out of view. Wikileaks is not immune. So can comic books. Where do we stop chasing the will o' the whisp?
Maybe they can
rake its reflection out of a pond?
Paris, in case everyone's forgotten the Wiltshire Moonrakers.
WWSD (What Would Stalin Do?)
Spy! Much easier.
Ova mordanta?
"Eggs-terminate, eggs-terminate..."
Throw the switch, mate, it's them bl**dy eggs again...
Readers of the lost work
What is causing THIS person not to go near e-books is e-book readers. They're not a substitute for books, and some brands want me to buy my own books twice just to see them on a screen. I spend considerably more than $9.99 for new hardcovers, of course, but that is made up for by spending a LOT less on used books. And who is selling $1US used books for e-readers? No one unsued!
Makes me even more grateful
for old book stores.
I do buy hardcovers of new books, SF,mostly. But I REALLY like to browse used book stores.
Amazon? That's just a river with piranhas in it.
When you're in a hole
stop, uh, 'boring."
Posted in French mock British G-spot probe
Hang on there!
"make do with fish and chips, lager and second-rate sex "
But wasn't it a British couple who got ASBO'd because they were too loud?
Maybe it's the vinegar.
Posted in Australia leaves the internet
The [once] Great Australian Adjective?
What a [link deleted] shame!
Web subversion?
A Blog where people can anonymously list their own postcodes might be enough over time to render the for-fee model unusable.
Subversion by Web?
TheTen Billion Names of Pi
Travelers who must deal with sensitive information are already advised to carry only sanitized laptops when passing international borders, downloading replacement files from secure sites and via VPN's after arrival. Meanwhile... large files containing the digits of Pi AFTER some random millions might offer snoops all the entertainment they care to enjoy.
Posted in ASA bans tyrannical German boss ad
But wasn't Big Brother...
BRITISH?
Yes, yes, there's some in every nation. But an advert aimed at British viewers might just work better if it portrayed someone they know or know of currently.
Purdah Rising
And to think that not all THAT long ago, a glimpse of a fair ankle was considered arousing.
Burka's for all, Hinson!
Remember the GriD Convertible?
It ran a pen enabled Windows 3. Pretty neat gadget -- and I've a prototype somewhere that I bought as scrap when the assets were sold off by a successor firm.
Rsverse Redacted
If I put text back... is it greenacted?
Easy as Pi
Massive rainbow table? Hello? Thousand million digits of Pi sites are out there. How massive does it have to BE?
It's worse, really. When a high fidelity audio system can pick up the GSM buzz, why not a broad band direct data receiver? Who needs hopping?
Not me, said Peter Rabbit!
Heathrow NORDO From 1 JAN?
That'd raise a row! Maybe comms could take place over WiFi.
If the carrier and modulation are kept within the 8.33 KHz channel allotted there's no need for another radio. Comms-quality AM uses about 6 KHz, so airports should just start paying for only the spectrum they use, thus cutting OFCOM's revenue by 2/3 preemptively.
Black helicopter -- because there's no icon for smashed up airplanes
Posted in Can anyone explain the chunnel fiasco?
"Coach" Motel
To paraphrase the US pest control co's advert:
Coaches check in
But they don't check out.
There'll always be an England ...
but once you're French, you're stuck.
Posted in Norwegians plan to harpoon Twitter
Do all -- or fall
The problem is that every country wants its laws obeyed by on-line entities located and operating in different countries subject to ITS laws. Given the diversity of governments, I can see an on-line firm choosing to end service when privacy, provision of information, surveillance and conduct rules collide.
They need "Goo be Gone!"
Having had to deal with gummy, stinky coatings of tobacco smoke on used radio equipment, I'm for the workers. Having as a consumer had to deal with uncooperative warranty departments, not to mention incompetent repairs, I'd ask if there WAS 0.1% of the product mass of "a carcinogen pursuant to the Occupational Carcinogens Control Act" ?
.................................................................................
[California] LABOR CODE SECTION 6383.
(a) For the purposes of this chapter, a hazardous substance is present in any mixture or product if it is present in any of the following concentrations:
[SNIPPED]
(3) One-tenth of 1 percent of the mixture or product if the hazardous substance in the mixture or product is designated as a carcinogen pursuant to the Occupational Carcinogens Control Act of 1976 (Ch. 2 (commencing with Section 24200), Div. 20, H.& S.C.) or the federal Hazard Communication Standard (29 C.F.R. Sec. 1910.1200).
..................................................................................
It's called "Catching up the Soviet Union"
Vas dokumenty...
Posted in Apple seeks OS-jacking advert patent
Click here to skip ad?
The Web is already infested.
WIl be interesting to watch Apple sales. Next upgrade pushed and your device is crippled? On purpose?
Good luck!
(Breaking out dial telephone)
(EMP? What EMP?)
Posted in Intel Israel rolls out the barbed wire
Intel has had Saturday work permits for years
It appears, however, that some Orthodox groups have decided protest and even riots are how to hang onto political power -- or gain more. The English-language Jerusalem Post often covers this. Search there for "haredi" or "haredim".
A 13 November article about Intel's troubles, "Barkat voices his support for Intel" by Judy Siegel and Abe Selig, says,
excerpt
While government permits are required for companies to employ Jews on Shabbat, the original Fab 8 facility had such permission from the outset. When it closed for renovations two years ago, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor permit was no longer necessary, but negotiations to renew it are considered by management as a formality that will not be rejected.
URL http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1258027297907&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Where'd THAT come from?
Plans to move an aircraft carrier to the vicinity of the LHC are on hold while a canal from Lake Geneva is widened and deepened. How to get the aircraft carrier INTO Lake Geneva is being studied by the European Navigable Waterways Ministry in Brussels..
In other news, an unexplained plague of badgers has been put down to a mysterious prevalence of baguette crumbs ...
Switching OFF is easy
But, OMG, we can't figure out how to turn the bl**dy gear back ON!
Aaaarghhhhhh!
Posted in FCC ferrets around for spare spectrum
Do what they did to Public Safety radio
Decree NARROW bandwidth.
o o__ === o o__ == == ==____ == ==__ == == ==__o === o__ o o o__o
Friction, maybe?
The melting comment is unfortunately on target; in Vietnam, US Army aviators found out (the hard way) that they might survive a fiery crash unscathed, protected by Nomex and a helmet, only to have nylon undergarments melt, and char the areas beneath. Ow.
However, what kind of exercise gets a brassiere hot enough to melt?
Paris, because she might have an answer
Bird to be charged with
Unlawful flight to evade capture.
Umm...
Too late!
Rave and Disco-hardened fans fail to succumb, budget officials ill.
Posted in Power grid takedown: A new how-to
NIx Tree Trimming Kill Grid
That simple financial trick has already been proven to work.
Sorry Officer, can't say why it doesnt work
A good two or three coats of aluminium paint (or even foil) over the antenna, followed by a flat black to make the work inconspicuous; that should do it.
Posted in Ofcom website takes second day off
Hey, they're about COMMUNICATIONS
Anyway, if they won't listen to complaints, why have a place to look for answer?
The IT connection!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/28/bluetooth_device/#top
Is it just possible
that OFCOM have been gotten to?
Is it just possible that, much as the constable whose son has a garage band hears nothing amiss, neither can officials with an interest in snake raising admit seeing one when it fangs them in the nose?
Is it?
Posted in Sony takes on the Kindle
Who rules?
The CONTENT will all be on Google.
.
.
And Saint Peter in his doorway
Writes with one eye turned down floorway.
For the wisdom of the ages he can tell:
You may die and go to Heaven
And your Pulitzers be seven
But the editors will still all work for Hell!
.
(Copyright Cortland Richmond)
Door number THREE
"... If it's approved, Google has an enormous amount of control over the future of digital books. And if it's rejected, the company still has an enormous amount of control."
Not necessarily; if it's rejected, the case goes to trial and Google can LOSE.
A device for converting current into heat
Patent the resistor? Maybe. A former employer's patent guidance (NB: NOT Apple(tm)) to employees was that we should patent as much fundamental stuff as we could -- to deny it to others. The wheel? Maybe not*. The click-wheel? Certainly! http://www.macnn.com/blogs/2009/08/11/apple-wins-patents-for-click-wheel-iphone-itunes-backup-while-filing-for-the-app-store-logo-trademark.html
*Maybe so: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn965-wheel-patented-in-australia.html
In 1997 the journal of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society published a patent extract showing the Japanese firm Murata had patented the pi-network, fundamental to many kinds of filters and matching circuits, and a century old when the patent was issued. And one can't use a Firewire(TM) plug for anything BUT 1394; Apple (TM) owns the patent for that.
Posted in Ofcom taps sailors for new fees
Valletta calling
Ship and boat owners might just register their vessels (and get their call signs) in that beautiful Mediterranean regulatory shelter, Malta. (Oddly enough, the now-missing Russian freighter Arctic Sea is registered in Valletta.)
Nor any drop todrink
Water cooled?
Posted in CompuServe signs off
I'm 72146,373, do any there remember me?
72146,373 hasn't been seen on Compu$erve for a long time, and it appears I can't use it there ever again; now I must pay to use it.
[quote]
Oh for ASCII!
And faster screens of yore;
We DL scads
Of horrid ads
And still don't read much more.
[/quote]
or as Delphi used to say:
R FT NS <ENTER>
