Second, end-node measurement. Power meters don't have to be designed to measure current both ways. That's an assumption made during manufacture. If you bought one of those nifty Kill-A-Watt meters and then ran current backwards, it would likely either not register it, OR register it still going forward. That's a serious problem for a power company. They can see reduced load using their existing system, they cannot see negative loads.

This depends on the power meter but even Kill-A-Watt meters can read out non-unity power factor produced by circulating currents from reactive loads so they *do* make the correct low level measurement. Whether they would show reverse power or not just depends on the programming for the display. Now that you bring it up, I may test mine which is easy enough to do but reading online it says they read and count the power correctly but do not show it as reverse.

I'm not an electrical engineer, but couldn't grid-tied houses use some technology to reduce input to the grid based on either a signal from the grid itself, or based on local factors such as overvoltage in the grid?

Grid-tie inverters already do this in one form or another. If the grid voltage or frequency falls outside of bounds then they limit their output power or shut off. There are certifications either being worked on or finished wish specify the details.

On those days, everyone will also be trying to run their air conditioning full blast, and although newer homes will be adding power to the grid, it probably won't balance out the extra usage from all the older, less insulated homes and businesses.

Besides, unless I'm misremembering my basic electronics, having extra power available is usually not a problem unless there is someone to consume it (*)

The non-zero impedance of the power distribution lines is the real problem. Adding uncontrolled sources at the end of the distributions lines will allow more variability in the line voltage at the midpoint of the distribution lines. When grid-tie production is a fraction of the total generated power this is not a problem but as it grows, conditions arise where the line voltage varies outside of specified limits.

Grid-tie inverters already regulate their output to prevent operation out of range but the problem lies within the power distribution system itself. The line impedance is finite and fixed assuming that the power generation is centralized so voltage drop along the line is roughly compensated for. This however creates a situation where grid-tie power generation at the end of a line can produce a high voltage in the middle which cannot be compensated for without changing transformer taps which is not normally done in real time. As long as the percentage of grid-tie power is small this is not a problem.

As a practical matter this means that either the power distribution impedance needs to be lowered (heavier wire or real time control of the step-up and step-down transformation) or the grid-tie inverter output power needs to be limited by the power company as needed.

I fear I would then end up with two bills, one covering the cost of the energy I want and another to allow the delivery of that energy to the location I desire...

Some places do this; they have an ongoing "connection fee" which is separate from the fee for the metered power. Places which do not just combine the connection fee with the power usage but the cost is still there.

As a practical matter I think the solution is to have an itemized bill with separate ongoing connection fee which is based on the circuit size and pays for the distribution infrastructure.

"I can only assume that T-mobile demanded that the FM radio be disabled, in order to get people to use up all their data listening to streaming music."

That does not explain why another carrier outside the US would not want to do the same thing.

I expect that they would if they had less competition and/or more regulatory capture.

Someone mentioned weather radio, which is on an even higher frequency than broadcast FM. I can't see any reason why phones manufacturers can't throw in a dirt-cheap weather-band radio as well. Heck, the could even do this with little or no "hit to their bottom line" (the likely reason FM is disabled in many phones) and market it as a selling point: "your phone is an emergency weather radio even if you can't get a cell signal, buy now!"

The FM broadcast band is 87.9 to 107.9 MHz and weather radio has several channels in the 161 to 163 MHz range. I will not say that using the same compact antenna for both is impossible but it would require an extra switched tuning circuit for acceptable performance.

A broadcast band AM receiver can be integrated to the same extent that a broadcast band FM receiver can be but it requires a loopstick antenna. Broadcast band FM can get by with an actively tuned 10 centimeter loop.

Cell towers also have emergency generators.

We have seen how well that worked out in recent wide scale disasters. Even if communications is maintained while the generators are operating, they run out of fuel in hours to days.

DSL and Cable at least where I am in no better however. We have a backup power supply which came with the DSL modem which also provides phone service but if the power goes out, the connection is lost upstream making the modem no more than an expensive and poorly performing switch/router/AP for the local network. I gather that there was a requirement that the modem be backed up since it provides phone service but guess that the same rule does not apply to the rest of the network.

Cell towers also depend on digital backbone and data connections (routers) that also need uninterruptible power.

They also rely on not too many people using them at once. To borrow a quote concerning the evacuation of a major city, "It does not matter if the freeways are usable because millions of people will be trying to use them." SMS is the exception because it operates asynchronously like email but I wonder how well IP based messaging protocols will work during emergencies.

The lower frequency cell phone bands have the same problem with antenna size and efficiency with the added complication of also being used for transmission. The same solution involving active tuning applies to integrated FM broadcast band antennas:

http://www.silabs.com/Support%...

Wire loop length can be as short as 10 centimeters:

http://www.silabs.com/Support%...

I noticed a couple years ago that switching capacitor tuning solutions were showing up for cell phone handsets that use the lower frequency cell phone bands which recently became available.

I ran across this link to a transcript about the history of the 68000 after my post here. There is a discussion thread on the Real World Technology forums about why IBM chose the 8088 where this transcript was linked:

http://archive.computerhistory...

http://www.realworldtech.com/f...

The additional cost of the 68000 over the 8088 was an even larger factor than I remember.

Then when they balk it can be handled in a secret court where nobody knows the results. Even better I could see a situation where they identify an employee or two and order them to hand the data over and not even allow them to tell twitter about the court order (if they can't tell some people then why can't these orders be restricted to their boss as well?)

How does this work when the boss discovers what the employee did, fires them, and refers them to law enforcement for prosecution? This seems like a great way for the NSA or other agency to persecute people with secret orders; do what we want or face our wrath and if you do what we want, face your employer's wrath and the criminal justice system.

then they would be *safer* here in the USA where the NSA is not allowed to spy on them, because it's
A: in the USA (FBI territory, right?)
B: whoever it is would need a warrant.

They just need an administrative subpena (we think this is relevant to something) since it is third party data. No notification of the target is necessary.

The 68008 became available years (3?) after the 8088. I do not remember it even being planned or announced at the time.