A "Carrington-level" event nowadays would most likely be much less disruptive, as back then all the early radio and spark gap stuff was well under 50 MHz, which is where almost all of the natural noise winds up in the spectrum. Ever notice, for example you can hear your shaver motor on an AM radio but not an FM one. This is not due to AM vs. FM, (well, it is a little) but mostly due to the fact that AM is about 1 MHz and FM is about 100 MHz, well above the "static line" around 50 MHz.

It would take a much stronger signal than back then to cause the same level of disruption. Not saying that can't happen, but modern radio communications are quite a bit more robust than they were back over 100 years ago.

Normal people don't speak hex. User number A00 would be too confusing in most cases.

Remember stuff like this needs to be cop-proof. I used to design software for their dispatchers to use, and they aren't super intuitive with computers for the most part, like most of the other cops unless it's specifically part of their job. A lot of things had to be dumbed down so they could use and understand it easily.

No insult is meant here, it's just they are very busy with their jobs and having to be familiar with many different tools and systems; radio, weapon(s), forensic stuff, etc. so the amount of time they have to invest in training and learning about new tools has to be balanced among many competitive things they need to be current on. Plus, in an emergency situation, they want tools they don't have to expend a lot of extra thought on how to use.

Hence, anything designed for them to use has to be reasonably fail-safe, intuitive to use, bulletproof and easy to understand to be successful. My software was used for over 10 years by several local departments, so I'd consider that a success.

All good points - yet another point of failure, as others have pointed out.

Plus, there is the more tinfoil hatty aspect of this too - How nice and easy to use a directed EMP to disable any such weapons (presumably of the bad guy only). Nice to be able to mass disarm a whole crowd of them if "necessary"...

I have a huge cornal mass ejection after eating too much creamed corn and prunes...

+1 Beat me To It Award... :D

No Anonymous Cowards? Any??

I sometimes dream of a 0 AC Slashdot...

That is a newer generation of the same thing, but if you notice they decode DVB-T2, which is High-Definition. The cheap RTL dongles decode about 3 MHz of spectrum space which is enough for a Standard-Definition DVB signal, but not enough for HD. The newer ones that do DVB-T2 have a wider chunk of spectrum space they translate, wide enough for an HD signal. In the US, an ATSC or "digital TV" High-Definition signal is about 6 MHz wide, for reference.

These newer generation dongles must have internal improvements that allows them to grab a bigger hunk of RF spectrum. The professional SDR devices that cost upward of $1000 can grab much larger chunks of spectrum, some can do 20 MHz wide swaths of RF.

Your point is? The Xbox acts the same as a PC. The host (PC or Xbox) runs software that tunes the device and then decodes the compressed MPEG video when they are in DVB mode so you can watch TV. I was also pointing out that they usually have an additional non-MPEG mode that makes them a generic IQ type SDR, and this device may also have a "hackable" aspect to it.

USB DVB tuners have been around for a while now and are amazingly cheap. Like $9.99 cheap. Besides receiving compressed DVB signals, most of them also have a general-purpose tuner mode for broadcast, etc. reception, and they make dandy Software-Defined Radios (SDR) that can tune from 50-1000 MHz or more, and translate an entire 3 MHz segment of the RF spectrum for software decoding.

The cheapest ones are based on the RTL-2832U tuner chip. They are a cable-TV tuner IC coupled to a USB soundcard IC internally. Check out rtl-sdr.com for more info. The PC software to receive radio is free, mostly open source and quite sophisticated, rivaling several-thousand dollar conventional radio packages. Check out sdr-radio.com and sdrsharp.com for a couple of the many software packages out there. Cool stuff!

Wow. Just wow. I have to wonder how much money they stuffed up that guy's ass to write that "review". My God, there wasn't that much gushing at Spindletop!

Kind of makes you wonder if the "leak" wasn't deliberate. It would be hysterically ironic if the DHS investigation proved THAT out...

Their biggest loss will be the revenue lost from all the people that will get to see ahead of time what a turd this will be - BEFORE the Hollywood Bullshit Mega-Hype Machine has a chance to launch the hypnotic media assault that will try to trick the masses into thinking it's a good movie.

Ongoing Criminal Enterprise?

I just wish it had happened to YOU when you were born. Then I wouldn't have to deal with trolls like you. That's right, trolls. You dried-up-cunt type PC thugs are making it impossible for anyone to have a conversation of any kind without "offiending" someone like you in some way, thin-skinned douchebags that think the world should stop every time you sneeze. If you had your way, humor would be outlawed and/or impossible because it would always offend someone somehow. You PC assholes love to try and make people walk on eggshells, ready to cry foul as soon as someone missteps.

As I said, there is a LOT in the world that is wrong right now, even *gasp* things more important than YOU and your easily-offended sensibilities. Not some stupid gaming shit, perhaps that is the peak of your world worries. Is it bad, yes, of course, no fucking kidding, that's not the issue. We have a LOT worse to deal with. Real, important shit, like we are about to have a new old war in the Middle East, the USA govt is rampant and unhinged, Russia possibly even more so. I could go on, but it's enough to say that people are dying in real, large numbers and not just two unlucky infants in a pool of millions.

Just stay away from Slashdot entirely. If my humorous post so deeply disturbed your shit then some of the trolls here that are really trying ought to give you a sheer heart attack. And maybe, that would be a good thing. Good riddance to the likes of you. You make the world a worse place by your heavy-handed and misguided efforts to tilt the world view in your direction and to make sure that no one has ANY FUN AT ALL, WHATSOEVER.

I hope my diatribe lived up to your wildest dreams, sweetie.

"Won't somebody think of the children!!" Cry me a river, then piss off. We all have plenty of much more serious stuff to fret over than a couple of losers that made a bad decision. The sheer stupidity and rarity of the action makes it ludicrous enough to be surreal - it makes a joke of itself.

Lighten up, Francis.

Well, that's it, we're broke. It's science experiments for the lot of you!