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Comment Re:Key or keyless, all the same (Score 4, Interesting) 221

...The cure is to lock and unlock your car with a physical key to prevent reading of the code. The other step is to add a switch to simply turn off the RF trancievers in the car when parking...

Great point.

Once hackers started popping passenger doors remotely, I found out you could disable remote door unlock just by pulling the fuse on the receiver.

Now you need a physical smart key turn to open the door and disable the alarm.

Just picking the lock won't work either, because it's the smart key that disables the alarm.

Comment Peltier Junctions (Score 1) 202

Simple:

1. Put your conventional, fan-cooled PC inside a completely sealed all-metal case. (With water-tight ports for CAT-5, USB, whatever.)

2. Line the inside of the case with Peltier junctions wired to power, through a thermostat.

3. On the outside of the case, aligned with each Peltier junction, you place a heat sink. Heat to be transferred through the metal case.

4. If the thermostat detects high temp inside the case, it energizes the Peltier junctions to be cold on the inside, hot on the case side.

5. If the thermostat detects low temps inside the case, it energizes the Peltier junctions to be hot on the inside, cold on the case side.

Comment Re:Man up (Score 1) 279

It gets better , when you realize most rooms only need one jack or none at all.

I would argue false economy on this. Cable is cheap and labour is expensive (even if it is your own time) if you are pulling a single cable to a room, pull at least 2.

No need to pull two cables. Every time you run a line, tie in a double-long length of braided poly rope. If you ever need to run another cable in the future (who knows what it will be; fiber, CAT 9, 10?) attach it to the poly rope and pull it through.

Because it's double-long, you can pull it back in to the 'starting position' when you're done and it will be ready for the next pull.

Comment Re:Cost (Score 1) 118

Er, if you have a wireless LAN, you might as well have router to an always-on internet connection, and say a Beaglebone Black for smarts to collect the data and forward it. That way you don't need any of these modules at all.

Excellent point!

Perhaps this would still be useful where no always-on internet connection is available - like an RV, or on a fleet of shipping trucks where you want to monitor a constellation of activities= speed, gas level, lights, engine status, reefer temps, etc.

Or, where you don't want to spend money for an always-on internet connection, like a vacation cabin (when empty).

Comment Re:Cost (Score 1) 118

So I have 10 devices I want to hook up. The AC, the lights, refrigerator, washing machine, toaster, whatever. Does that mean I need 10 phone and data contracts with AT&T...

Perhaps you could have a little wireless LAN in the house that each device could talk to, with all the data coming into this module for remote monitoring and control. That way you only need one module.

Submission + - Kano Ships 18,000 Learn-To-Code Computer Kits (techcrunch.com)

drkim writes: Kano Computing, a startup that plays in the learn to code space by adding a step-by-step hand-holding layer atop the Raspberry Pi single-board microcomputer to make hacking around with code and learning about computational thinking child’s play, has shipped all the hardware kits in its first batch of crowdfunded orders and pre-orders.

That’s around 18,000 kits in all, co-founder Alex Klein confirmed to TechCrunch. “They are all in the wild, they are out of our hands. About 1,000 have arrived already — the early bird kits.

Comment Re:Oh good (Score 1) 907

There has been 'repo' tech in place for a while now.

While offering a buyer the factory "theft prevention GPS tracker" the dealership retains the right to share the tracking data.

While passive, (it doesn't do the engine cut-off described above) if someone starts to miss payments, the repo boys know just where to find the car.

This has been in place for at least 5 years.

Comment Re: No surprise (Score 1) 224

...a behavior is "right" if it's beneficial to the species' survival and prosperity, and "wrong" if harmful to the species...

Great insight, very close. There is no need to cut along species lines.

A behavior is "right" if it helps carry the greatest amount of your genes (or the genes most similar to yours) into the next generation.

Like giving up your life for your kids, but maybe not for your grandparents.

Not risking your life to try to save a mouse.

Feeling free to eat vegetables but maybe not other mammals.

It's funny how people who want to "save the baby seals" are perfectly fine taking antibiotics and anti-virals.
They are both just as 'alive'.

We have more empathy for people and animals who's DNA is more similar to our own.

(Disclaimer: I gleaned all these insights from reading Dawkins. I wasn't smart enough to come up with them on my own.)

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