Comment Re:Congratulations. You've just invented packet ra (Score 3, Insightful) 180
I'm sure they're probably using Baofengs like everyone else who likes to freeband.
Comment Congratulations. You've just invented packet radio (Score 5, Informative) 180
Packet radio is done every single day on HF on up. With APRS, you can get messages from one coast to the other and back again without any internet or phone connection.
If you DO have an Internet connection, http://www.aprs.fi/ even shows you where all of the beacons, digipeaters, and stations are at a given time, and allows you to see all of the packets that are sent.
Comment I informed you thusly... (Score 5, Insightful) 410
I hate to say it, but I told you so. I said it then, and I'll say it now. The moment Obama appointed yet... another... lobbyist to head the FCC, one who spent years as a cable company and telecom lobbyist:
Net... Neutrality... Was DEAD... PERIOD.
Need I remind all of you Obama-lovers of this little tid bit from no other website but ethics.change.gov:
http://change.gov/agenda/ethic...
"I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists â" and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president."
-- Barack Obama, Speech in Des Moines, IA
November 10, 2007
I informed you thusly...
Comment Re:Too good to be true? (Score 1) 196
For accessing sequential data, serial interfaces do pretty well. You send an address once, and just keep on clocking out (or in) high speed serial data and the flash controller in the card increments the address automagically.
The problem comes with XIF implementations that are highly random, and change access addresses often. That is not fast on a serial flash where address setups take a long time.
Comment Re:everything was done right but the call? (Score 1) 461
There is actually no right of an accuser to remain anonymous in the United States. The 6th Amendment gives the right of the accused to confront his/her/its accuser in open court.
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."
I would argue that the person who first provided "evidence" is a witness against, and must be produced by the State in open court. Of course, there is probably already SCOTUS precedent saying otherwise...
Comment Re:The problem is this Supreme Court. (Score 1) 461
Congress can impeach Supreme Court justices just like they can impeach the President.
Comment Re:Too good to be true? (Score 4, Interesting) 196
MicroSD uses a cheap n-wire serial interface. Embedded FLASH, especially that which is used for XIF, is parallel and much much faster, and more expensive owing to the larger packages with higher numbers of pins for parallel interfaces.
Comment Re:Too good to be true? (Score 4, Informative) 196
It's being sold direct by the Chinese manufacturer:
OnePlus
Unit B 9/F. Lockhart Centre
301-307 Lockhart Road Wanchai
Hong Kong Central
Hong Kong
Cutting out markups by US retailers can only lower the final consumer price. Units will ship directly from China most likely, and most US consumers will be surprised when they receive bills from the shipper for US Customs clearance. It's unlikely they will be able to get away with checking the "Gift" box on the customs forms for 10 million phones.
Comment Re:impressive specs (Score 1) 196
OnePlus
Unit B 9/F. Lockhart Centre
301-307 Lockhart Road Wanchai
Hong Kong Central
Hong Kong
Comment Re:Glad I pulled the plug (Score 2) 342
I did the same thing. I cut the cord when I bought my first home, since at the time I couldn't afford the $200/month Comcast wanted for Cable, Internet, and Phone (which they all but demanded you bundle by charging twice as much for any one of them without the other two).
I got DSL from a CLEC (because you could still do that at the time) for $25/month, and got Fios internet-only when that came around about 5 years later.
I've moved since then, and I sold my TVs in the process. I don't have a TV in my house, now, and it has been absolutely liberating for the last 3 years.
Comment Necessity is the mother of all invention (Score 1) 306
Human beings are terrible at planning ahead. Just look at the financial condition of just about any modern nation. Knee deep in debt with only plans to spend more money without thinking about how to pay it off. It takes bankruptcy for them to change their ways.
Same goes for renewable energy - yeah there is some token adoption as long as it is heavily subsidized. It will take actual depletion of the current resource to drive full-scale adoption.
IPv4 is just another example of human-driven resource exhaustion with immense resistance to the future plan until the current resource is actually completely exhausted.
Comment Does it also apply to homes? (Score 5, Interesting) 461
If someone who doesn't like me makes an "anonymous" call to 911 to report that I'm running meth lab in my garage, does that also give the cops the right to ransack my house looking for a meth lab?
It's sad that "probable cause" has been diluted to the point that it has.
Hasn't this already been going on with "anonymous" tips from the DEA and DHS leading to traffic stops where "parallel construction" is used to fabricate grounds for probable cause after the fact? I guess this ruling removes the need to do the whole "parallel construction" thing?
Supreme Court Upholds Michigan's Ban On Affirmative Action In College Admissions 410
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: "The Supreme Court, by a vote of 6 — 2, has upheld a Michigan law banning the use of racial criteria in college admissions, finding that a lower court did not have the authority to set aside the measure approved in a 2006 referendum supported by 58% of voters. 'This case is not about how the debate about racial preferences should be resolved. It is about who may resolve it,' wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy. 'Michigan voters used the initiative system to bypass public officials who were deemed not responsive to the concerns of a majority of the voters with respect to a policy of granting race-based preferences that raises difficult and delicate issues.' Kennedy's core opinion in the Michigan case seems to exalt referenda as a kind of direct democracy that the courts should be particularly reluctant to disturb. This might be a problem for same-sex marriage opponents if a future Supreme Court challenge involves a state law or constitutional amendment enacted by voters.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor reacted sharply in disagreeing with the decision in a 58 page dissent. 'For members of historically marginalized groups, which rely on the federal courts to protect their constitutional rights, the decision can hardly bolster hope for a vision of democracy (PDF) that preserves for all the right to participate meaningfully and equally in self-government.' The decision was the latest step in a legal and political battle over whether state colleges can use race and gender as a factor in choosing what students to admit. Michigan has said minority enrollment at its flagship university, the University of Michigan, has not gone down since the measure was passed. Civil rights groups dispute those figures and say other states have seen fewer African-American and Hispanic students attending highly competitive schools, especially in graduate level fields like law, medicine, and science."
Justice Sonia Sotomayor reacted sharply in disagreeing with the decision in a 58 page dissent. 'For members of historically marginalized groups, which rely on the federal courts to protect their constitutional rights, the decision can hardly bolster hope for a vision of democracy (PDF) that preserves for all the right to participate meaningfully and equally in self-government.' The decision was the latest step in a legal and political battle over whether state colleges can use race and gender as a factor in choosing what students to admit. Michigan has said minority enrollment at its flagship university, the University of Michigan, has not gone down since the measure was passed. Civil rights groups dispute those figures and say other states have seen fewer African-American and Hispanic students attending highly competitive schools, especially in graduate level fields like law, medicine, and science."
Comment Re:Healthy to question authority (Score 1) 600
"Doubt" and "blind repudiation" are not the same thing, although proponents of AGW Theory believe they are.
Comment Re:37% is an improvement (Score 1) 600
I remember when the consensus was that a 100nm process architecture was "impossible" and "beyond human capability to manipulate matter."
