Sadly, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is against using fission for producing electricity, which, along with large-scale hydro, is the only way to actually reduce greenhouse gas without impacting quality of life.
Why can't my phone screen calls for me? It's supposed to be smart, right?
In fact, why do phones even ring? Why shouldn't Siri or whoever say "Excuse me sir, but your dentist's office is calling. Do you want to take the call or should I take a message?"
If the caller isn't authenticated, get more information before passing along the call. Sure, it would be somewhat simple for a telemarketer to fake their way in, but that's always been the case with salespeople. As the software evolves it would get better (along with sharing whitelists and other tools amongst users).
Atari 800 disk drive I/O beeping through the monitor speaker while it loaded programs. The "shucka-shucka-shucka" sound of Apple ][ disk drives booting.
Shortwave radio listeners can hear the time lady on WWVH, as long as the time dude on WWV doesn't overpower her.
Or 1/10 of that price if you shop for used CDs and frequented the “going out of business” record stores in the 2000s.
Yep, they bet that they’d become the 3rd party cell phone king. They forgot that in the US, the carrier is happy to extend credit for the handsets.
Bad bet, but hey, it happens. At the time, the other side of the bet was to start selling homebrew PC components, and look where CompUSA is now...
I’ll believe the system works when we see perp walks and jail time.
Except that 1) your neighbor has no lawn mower, 2) your neighbor has no lawn.
Yep, a worker’s paradise.
Just because something you said on a TV show became popular online doesn’t mean we need an app built around it. It would be one thing if it were a clever word or phrase, but it’s not.
So my new "Up your nose with a rubber hose." app might not be the next big thing?
And a repeater, tower (or rent), a maintenance contract, etc. it adds up when your primary goal is to "maximizize shareholder value"
Oh, and because we're licensed by governments, we're already tested for our trustworthiness. Some are a little more trustworthy than others though...
The issue, at least in the US, is that we're expected to be self-policing. The FCC, as an extension of the IRU, puts severe limits on speech over the airwaves. I'm sure the UK is similar. When encrypted information is transmitted there's no way to know if the information is in compliance. For example, imagine an ambulance service installing ham radios in all their vehicles then instructing their drivers to get amateur licenses. They could start using the local repeaters for business communication and no one would be able to prove it. The ambulance company could say they were conducting a drill, or that the drivers were just rag chewing during their downtime because they enjoy the hobby, whatever.
BTW, in the US, amateurs have been setting up DMR repeaters. Most of these repeaters are capable of encrypted communications. It's just a setting in the software.
I agree that whackers are a problem with modern ham radio, but they do help protect the bands (especially UHF and above) just because the ARRL can wave the disaster flag at the FCC every so often. I got into the hobby to play with radios and experiment, not be a "hero."
But I also think there's been a massive overreaction by the health care industry because of HIPAA, and DHS' attempt to co-opt the bands under the guise of disaster relief after the FCC screwed up the police bands with narrow banding. I've participated in traffic nets. I'm a big boy and know what counts as health and welfare traffic. And I also understand that most of the time hams should be sending "I'm OK" radiograms to family members outside the disaster zone and helping keep the shelters stocked, not sending doctor's email over our bands.
Pulsars are precision references that could easily be used on a spacecraft with a suitable radio:
http://www.itu.int/pub/R-REP-R...
“I have no strong feelings one way or the other”
-Neutral President
A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable. -- Thomas Jefferson
