shooting a laser is easier than shooting a bullet. Laser goes speed of light (obviously) but a bullet needs to be targeted, has considerable travel time, good chance of missing, etc. Scary thing is a high power laser can quickly cover a wide area, blind large numbers of people without considering if they are enemy troops (including conscripts dumped in the field by an emperor) or protesters against government practices.

I was thinking some private group or company snags an asteroid says, "alright if you want me, come and get me. In the meantime, neeeyaa, neeeyaa, neeeyaa!"

I'm somewhat confused. Each ATSC channel is a fixed 6 MHz wide spectrum. They can either do one HD channel or four SD channels (I think but I cannot find solid technical info on TV broadcast except very general info that is aggregates of what everyone else posted, or very esoteric technical specific). I can get MPEG2 is high bandwidth and not that great compared to H264 but MPEG2 continues on because that's the way it is (like DVDs).

I was talking with someone who gave additional reason to cut cord from Comcast is HD from OTA is far superior than on cable which is highly compressed to transmit all those channels down the coax.

Speaking of technical, it was only recently you can easily find actual frequencies used by TV stations (needed if you are using UHF wireless mics). After the DTV transition, I could not find actual frequencies used which drove me nuts because those that say it is same as NTSC are wrong (well yes and no, digital channel is same freq as NTSC channel, but stations go by virtual channel which many are different). Get the freq here,
http://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/... put CA for state to show all broadcast TV stations in Calif.

for this diatribe, here's the data of these two stations from FCC site (freq from old school NTSC channel):
both stations are Full(DT) in Los Angeles Call Sign KLCS
Virtual Ch 58
Digital Ch 41 [632-638 MHz]
Licensee LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Call Sign KCET
Virtual Ch 28
Digital Ch 28 [554-560 MHz]
Licensee KCETLINK

Oh well, for you all RF types (yes, there is a low power NTSC station on analog ch 6),
Call Sign, Virtual Ch, Full/Low Power, Digital Ch, Licensee
KABC-TV 7 Full(DT) 7 ABC HOLDING COMPANY, INC.
KCAL-TV 9 Full(DT) 9 LOS ANGELES TELEVISION STATION KCAL LLC
KCBS-TV 2 Full(DT) 43 CBS BROADCASTING INC.
KCET 28 Full(DT) 28 KCETLINK
KCOP-TV 13 Full(DT) 13 FOX TELEVISION STATIONS, INC.
KEDD-LD - Low (LD) 50 VENTURE TECHNOLOGIES GROUP, LLC
KFLA-LD - Low (LD) 8 ROY WILLIAM MAYHUGH
KHIZ-LD - Low (LD) 2 JEFF CHANG
KHTV-CD - Low (DC) 27 VENTURE TECHNOLOGIES GROUP, LLC
KIIO-LD - Low (LD) 10 BAGRAT SARGSYAN
KLCS 58 Full(DT) 41 LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
KMEX-DT 34 Full(DT) 34 KMEX LICENSE PARTNERSHIP, G.P.
KMRZ-LD - Low (LD) 22 VENTURE TECHNOLOGIES GROUP, LLC
KNBC 4 Full(DT) 36 NBC TELEMUNDO LICENSE LLC
KNET-CD - Low (DC) 25 NRJ TV III CA LICENSE CO., LLC
KNLA-CD - Low (DC) 50 NRJ TV III CA LICENSE CO., LLC
KSFV-CD - Low (DC) 22 VENTURE TECHNOLOGIES GROUP, LLC
KSFV-LP 6 Low (TX) Analog Ch 6 VENTURE TECHNOLOGIES GROUP, LLC
KSMV-LD - Low (LD) 23 KJLA, LLC
KTBV-LD - Low (LD) 12 EICB-TV WEST, LLC
KTLA 5 Full(DT) 31 KTLA, LLC
KTTV 11 Full(DT) 11 FOX TELEVISION STATIONS, INC.
KVHD-LD - Low (LD) 40 NEW YORK SPECTRUM HOLDING COMPANY, LLC
KWHY-TV 22 Full(DT) 42 KWHY-22 BROADCASTING, LLC

I can get aluminum foil to make myself a hat, but tin foil? I did a quick search but only find pages discussing aluminum foil and computer security software and systems. Now I'm curious, we all hear the jokes but I really want to make myself a tinfoil hat. Not that it will do anything but have something that actually exists (like putting a label "Any" on one of infrequently used keys on a keyboard so I can properly respond to prompts, "press any key to continue" (if you don't have an "Any" key, then you are hosed).

yes and no. In late '60s and early '70s NASA specified width of cargo bay be 15 ft as anything smaller will make space station modules too cramped for people. USAF wanted cargo bay 60 ft long for their satellites, otherwise NASA would have it shorter (making design for orbiter easier). Shuttles were being planned and scheduled to be launched from Vandenberg in later 1980s. Lots of work done on SLC-6 and long landing strip, and Enterprise was used for configuration checks at SLC-6. Missions were planned but Challenger accident put a stop to all that (and military had to scramble to get Titan back on line to launch their sats).

I read someplace else Cuba can easily do business with other countries but their guvmint is pretty screwed up that other countries don't want to do business with.

from purchasing manufactured items (that used to be done here in US).

Someone commented in IEEE Spectrum we have all these STEM programs that pushes people from high school through college and into the real world like World War One soldiers into the trenches. What is lacking are experienced people in the work environment to share their experience, but these newbies have to fend for themselves while learning the trade (and pay off huge debt).

It was a different country that had Bell Labs and Xerox PARC. Same reason why it is so difficult if not impossible to send people to the moon and back because this is not the same country as it was before.

However, I wonder what kind of research Google is doing? We see the self driving cars but is there some other stuff they are doing but not talking about? After all, they can easily hire a bunch of really young superbright PhD types, give them a facility and a few billion dollars, turn them loose on whatever.

speaking of old phones, I had a Motorola flip phone (with GTE Wireless label). Though it was big but great for driving because buttons were large, I can use tacit feel when dialing so I don't have to take my eyes off the road. It had no text messaging but since it was pure analog, I can have a full fidelity conversation (and it was loud, perfect to accommodate road noise) and both me and other person can clearly hear each other. Nowadays you text because voice quality is terrible.

But another issue is in this world of high demand like more hours at work, more tasks to do, more IT kinds of things (and I'm not talking about watching corny vids on youtube), etc. Now traffic is become brutal at least here in Silicon Valley. It is painfully slow and damn going 1 mph for such a long time, it's difficult to not get on the 'net and take care of some tasks. But have to be careful and not impulse drive when traffic goes from 1 to 15 mph, and then bump the curve, take out a parking meter in front of a traffic cop.

I used to drive an Acura, 1996 model, but when I had to get another car I never considered Acuras because windows are much smaller. I drove a 2012 model, it was terrible with small windows, zillion blindspots. I guess add type of person that drives Acuras but getting back to all new cars where they have airbags in the window frames which further reduces visibility.

did you pull out your phone and take a video of this event and post on youtube?

interesting document, thanks for link. heh, come to this thread about payment systems getting hacked and veer off into counterfeit money. I don't shop Home Depot often, last time was there bought electrical supplies and paid cash (with real money of course). I'd hate if I used my CC and then get up the next day and read about Home Depot.

yes, give a $100 bill at any store and they will spend some time examining it. Except in Las Vegas, that gets as much attention as a quarter (unless things have changed in past 10 years). I read leading counterfeit bills are $10. $100 attract attention, $1 not worth time counterfeiting, but the $10 bill is good candidate because Treasury Dept is always changing the colors so nobody really keeps track on what an authentic bill looks like.

But how does a suspected counterfeit feels like? the real bills are special material that is hard to duplicate.

Some years ago couple teenagers had access to a color copy machine. They copied and printed lots of "money," went to Vegas and had a great time. They buy something trivial when cashier is really busy with long lines of people, give them a "$20" and receive legit change. But their luck ran out couple days later when a cashier took the money, "wait, this feels like regular paper." These days ***never*** copy money in a copy machine, a former Xerox tech told me. If it detects money, it will brick itself and only some guy from Xerox Japan can unlock the copy machine.

Another consideration is potential damage to underground water resources, if that gets polluted, all of us are toast. You can live without gas, but cannot live without water.

you mean like go where no one has gone before, like Europa?