Posts by Cortland Richmond

NOT swine flu

PIGFLUENZA

Loud? YOU WANT LOUD?

Look no further than the Republic Aviation XF-84H, nicknamed (not by Republic) the "Thunderscreech."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XF-84H_Thunderscreech

A development of the F-84F fighter, reports have it so noisy one pilot refused to fly it twice, and it was decided to tow the aircraft to the flight line with engine stopped, because of the effect its noise had on humans.

A fair comparison of airliner noise might be made between jet aircraft and aircraft of the same weight, size and passenger capacity but with piston engines. Anyone know how much noise a Brabazon made? It's useful , to bear in mind that noise reducing techniques have improved.

Let the market decide

I spent a number of years in the personal computer industry, and recall rumor having it that, due to pressure of the kind mentioned here, one product on which I'd worked (at a company no longer in that business) was pulled before it could be built and shipped.

One might always no-bid a solicitation to bid, but legitimate agreements to pursue an exclusive buying relationship depend not on threats, but benefits. Intel brings a lot to the table, and it is a distortion of what a free market should do to pressure those not wishing to enter such an agreement.

Their school; their rule

If MSJ were a State supported school, I would say government has no legitimate reason to dictate from what company a student's equipment must come. But this is not the case. MSJ is a privately owned university and, barring discrimination unlawful in the US, can set what conditions they see fit.

Ire in Eire

Moslems pray to Allah "la sharikka lak" -- you have no partner -- just as as Jews pray "Adonai Echod" -- God is One -- firmly denying that Trinity son of God Christians revere and they renounce. We have now established that all faiths commit offensive blasphemy daily. We might add Protestant renunciation of the reverence given saints.

There'll be ire in Eire.

Short words, old words

Who workest worse with pen and verse? Who harketh least to man or beast? Nay! Give me grandpa's speech and true; I'll leave the Latin all for you!

It could be worse

They could interleave high power PTT and low power trunking, overloading the smaller, lighter, portables.

Wait...haven't we SEEN that? Someone ask Sprint how many US Billion$ rebanding costs.

The bottom line forms at the ...

If we here in the US don't make things here in the US that folks in other countries want to buy, we won't be able to pay the rest of you for the things you already sold us. Or the loans you made us.

Not that this is a US-only problem, when even Japan Inc. is outsourcing to China.

Not Pigfluenza?

Hasn't Swine Flu taught everyone that smoked snouts risk trickynoses?

Spelling error reveals conspiracy

In "This is not part of the official pilot but will influence policy,"

shouldn't "official pilot" read "official plot" ?

The old song...

Some one is whistling "Some day my prints will come."

About that brainwave scan, Geordie; are you SURE the fingerprints were the PM's?

Eschew expense

The answer to rapacious sellers is to avoid their goods. This wounds them, if enough to do, and in this case, does the erstwhile consumer no harm.

IT Dep't Emerges From Comma?

Or is it ":Misteaks were made?"

The House That Roared?

Technologies that use home wiring for control or communications are subject to power line noise and even signals picked up from nearby radio transmitters. Imagine pressing the button to stop filling the baht and finding on arrival it was ignored; gives new meaning to the term "car pool."

Or 80 dB of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" at 0230. Ow!

Where's yer old stuff? Hand it over!

'Cause we got to take 65 percent of the weight of what you bought the last two years -- and you ain't thrown it out!

I can see it now

Perrier Terrier Sniffs Carbonated Cod

North Sea fizzy has boffin dizzy

El Reg headlines Zeds, claims relief from gas

Themed clothing, oh my!

"A troop of Girl Guides was today released from custody after attempting to book train tickets to London during the G20 watch period. The police have offered no apologies..."

All right, fiction. But what delicious fiction!

"... burst into the room and took into custody a group of strangely clothed men wearing leather straps around their arms and foreheads and chanting in a foreign tongue from a script none of the officers could read..."

Orthodox Jews, of course. Sorry! Still fiction!

BTW: Chag Sameach Pesach (and don't tell the Police)

Eschew content

I've no problem with DVD lockdowns: I refuse to watch 'em!

Eschew Content!

Or watch overseas streams, eh?

Fingered?

How do you say THAT in Chinese?

What banned was that on?

Alles was nicht pflichtig ist, ist verboten.

IOW: What ain't compulsory, is banned!

(And he says, "What banned was that on?")

Ruat coelum

I have this picture of a a lawsuit by a descendant of Amalek, suing the Sovereign (defensor fidei) for publishing and perpetuating libel against his family with every KJV Bible printed since commissioned by King James!

Fiat Justitia, ruat Coelum.

Et cvm spiritvvs Vodka

ID QaplA

Overcoming the issue of space for Welsh, the Minister today announced the Government intends ID cards to carry text in only two languages. However, to assuage those who wish to see other languages than French and English, the latter will be replaced on random cards by other languages spoken in the United Kingdom, proportionally to the number of residents who speak those languages. "It is up to those examining an ID card to make sense of it," she said, "and if you don't fancy Welsh, or Urdu, or Arabic or Old Scots... you can jolly well sod off."

Klingon speakers are expected to petition for inclusion on the list.

No crater bottoms?

That looks quite a bit like an ordinary optical image -- complete with shadows. One expects when told of the first pictures of crater floors to actually see crater floors. If not crater bottoms.

How do we do it? We make it up...

Stopped by my local CC. Everything ten percent off. Employees say "the liquidator" raised prices to MSRP so it could take off ten percent (cables were thirty percent) and still make money. Lots of empty spaces on the shelves, though prices are still mostly noncompetive, IMO.

I've SEEN a liquidation sale -- ten cents on the dollar. This isn't one.

Balance? What balance?

In Legal PLT effectively impossible anyway Brian Morrison said

"You can see why the PLT companies don't want this explored further, and recently they were prevented from pushing through a change to the standard in the CISPR 22 committee that would have increased the mains test network defined LCL from 6dB to 24dB (that's essentially saying that mains wiring is much better balanced than reality."

BPL in the USA often uses one-wire injection. In the original FCC RUlemaking, they asserted these would balanced feeds.

Radio Silence?

It appears that NYC may have been reading about the (planned, sued and not carried out) cell-phone jamming demo at a prison last week and gotten the idea that if everyone else could be prevented from talking to each other, the police would enjoy a tactical advantage. However, their plans do not stop at cellular telephones, 2G, 3G or Nth generation; they envision jamming Media feeds so damage assessment isn't available to attackers, and other radio communications that might be used by or exploited by terrorists.

In the United States that encompasses an astounding array of technologies. Let us start with 3-transistor toy walkie-talkies, CB radios, Family Radio Service, (and the higher power GMRS usually included and illegally used by FRS-buying public), MURS -- a limited channel low VHF service needing no license -- licensed business VHF and UHF, 900 MHz unlicensed Part 15, which includes cordless telephones, 900 MHz exempt (this is a cool radio, frequency hopping and practically indetectible by all but The Black Helicopters). Then add WiFi and its relatives, and 5.8 GHz NII and UWB gadgets. Ham radio too, which at up to 1500 Watts allowed power might be a harder job, though presumably we are considered loyal. (A long superseded US Army manual once listed an increase in Amateur Radio activity as an indication of upcoming guerrilla action.)

I suspect that technology has advanced beyond any agency's ability to shut down all commmunications. In any case, -- and this is why the prison demo was canceled – it's unlawful in the USA for anyone to make, import, market or sell jammers for communications regulated by the Federal Communications Commission.

During WW2, when information was needed on what German forces in France were up to, USAF P47's were called in to shoot up telephone wires and force the Jerries onto the wireless. That may be further then the NYPD is willing to go.

Or is "Speed Limit enforced By Aircraft!" for real?

This is a Phamily bored!

At 180 feet... what does the law say? "...any penetration no matter how slight."

Ahem!

What's in it for me? approach

Oh goody! I'll get to sell Iran my twenty-year-old HP test equipment!

I don't THINK so!

The issue of jobs going elsewhere is not really related to ITAR, but it is inextricably tied to trade policies and corporate law that together result in favoring consumption over innovation. The bitter bottom line is that no nation can afford this combination *unless it has enough people making things other countries need to pay for what it buys abroad*.

What we make of it

IMO, his knighthood improves the award.

LOTS of prior art

And I suspect high end CAD software from a *number* of vendors have had the ability to use system touch screens for some years; they do not CARE if you use a mouse or a fingertip.

GPS was deaf, Judge, so I went a little fast

I've a speed alarm on my existing GPS, but it does not pick up speeds posted. Would be convenient if it did, as some of us occasionally need to be reminded.

But GPS only works so long as it sees satellites. Are trees a defence?

UNLIMITED fines?

AKA: Mrs. Jones Biscuits funds the National Health System.

Where's that jolly Excel? We know it's in your hard disk drive! You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!

And where's a billabong to be found in Britain? (Never mind a coolibah tree.)

Oh look!

"some companies are re-routing traffic between Europe and Asia, and between Europe and the Middle East, through the US or other out-of-the-way destinations"

How convenient!

You wanted it WHEN?

I suspect the actual cause for action is that they don't deliver parts on time. From the lawsuit:

I. NATURE OF ACTION

2. As a result of the transaction, prices for the relevant products have increased and likely will continue to increase, delivery times have become less reliable, and terms of service likely will become less favorable. Accordingly Microsemi's acquisition of the Semicoa assets violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 18, and Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 2.

Also note

JANTXV and JANS 5811 Diodes

34. After 2004, Microsemi's delivery times became very long. Customers who were unable to delay their programs further were forced to use less reliable commercial grade 5811 diodes at increased cost due to the need for additional testing. Microsemi produced almost all of the commercial grade products used by those customers.

In other words, the new monopoly is accused of throttling defence customers by failing to deliver parts they've ordered.

CD, I see

RIAA does not like me; I buy my music on CD. I buy them used and next to free; RIAA does NOT like me.

My dialup line is far too slow To download music don't 'you know? My radio is on the air, For online music, I don't care.

And in my player, decades old, I've folk songs, klezmer, Russians bold.... With obscure labels yet untold, My carousel is quite enrolled.

RIAA does not like me; I buy my music on CD. I buy them used and next to free; RIAA does NOT like me.

RUM tiddle iddle iddle RUm tim tum! RUM tiddle iddle iddle RUm tim tum! RUM tiddle iddle iddle RUm tim tum! And now my little rhyme is done!

Screen doors too? And Radio Interference

Windows in a submarine; I LOVE it. I hope they have screen(door) savers.

More seriously, re shipkillers boring in without defense, one need look no further than Sheffield, burning with an Argentine missile in her, radar shut down because it interfered with radio comms. Short Wave listeners who have home Ethernet suffer from interference too; will the RN encounter it?

There was some time ago news the US Navy was soliciting PLT (BPL) for shipboard use. Given that system's known problems, let us hope the RN isn't so enamored of COTS as to fall for it!

Shocked, I tell you!

Doubts? What is the world coming to!

Doubts they HAVE doctors and professors on this. Doubts the photos even have a handset in them. Doubts the scans could even resolve cellphone-caused thermal gradients. Doubts the ad writers know what information is, let alone the quantum kind. But about protection?

I am shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

But seriously now

This is a very primitive life form, and absence of enough of the more advanced ones provides the opportunity for it to occupy more of the ocean than it has for some billions of years.