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Comment Apple stuff (Score 2) 21

The only remotely interesting thing was about Apple making them change the computer since it became evil. I had heard before that they are militant in movie productions about not letting the "Bad Guys (TM)" have an iPhone!

I thought about that and it came to me that it was a huge spoiler for a suspense movie, a double agent having an Android would be a dead giveaway!

Comment Re:"a major win for fans of physical media" (Score 1) 130

It was caused by laser rot, or Laser Diode degradation. The early players had lasers in them running as hard and hot as they could make them at the time, and over time the power output would decrease and the players would start skipping, or only work on their side, and it would get worse over time.

I had 3 of the Sony D-5 original "Discman" players and they all did the same thing, they lasted with daily use for about a year or so then started to exhibit the problems. This was only a problem for the first few years of CDs, by the time re-writable CD's came out, the the lasers were capable of much higher power and would last much longer at the lower power (playback mode) settings.

Comment Re: A legal agreement... (Score 1) 145

Some "QRP" or low power experimenters as you state play with very low power (under 5W), but most of the 900 MHz activity is simple analog or digital repeaters, like APCO/P25. If they are using standard LMR (2 way radio, like public safety) repeaters, they are using power levels from 35 to 300W TX Power typically. The antenna gains used give them 1x to 10x gain (from unity to ~10dB), so that gives typical total ERP values of 35 to 3000W.

Most amateurs using this band do not use full legal power there, unless they are playing with EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) stations or other specialized point to point applications.

Also, 900 MHz ham operations are not that common, in my state they are almost exclusively only in large metro city areas, and for example there are 500 repeaters total on all the various ham bands, and of them there are only maybe 25 total 900 MHz systems, state wide. Most systems are on the 2 meter or 70 cm (440 MHz) bands, with 220 MHz as the next most popular band.

Note that there are protected "weak signal" areas of the band reserved for those "QRP" or ultra low-power operators and for things like satellite signal earth station works. There are distinct "preserves" or areas of the band that are designated for that low power use only and repeaters or any other signals exceeding 1 or 5 W max are very much prohibited in these parts of the band.

Comment Re:Smoke (Score 2) 249

They are burning tires or other garbage in a cooling tower, from what I have gathered. They are pretty far from the main containment facility, especially the reactors, which I believe are in shutdown now. If so, the cooling towers aren't being used if the plant is in a standby state.

There's not much inside a cooling tower to damage or catch fire. If you've ever seen pictures inside one, or seen the movie Brazil, it's just a network of radial steam pipes that make up a "floor", with holes in them to let the steam out. The platform of pipes is raised about 20-30 feet from the actual ground below. Nothing particularly flammable about it.

Other than maybe a few small valves, pumps or other actuator type control equipment, there is not much that's either electronic or particularly sensitive inside them. The walls are reinforced concrete, AFAIK, and they also are not flammable.

Although Putin might be embarrassed, he won't deliberately risk an accident there. It would cause too much blowback and they would be risking nuking themselves, essentially. But, there is always the possibility of an accidental shooting or explosion that can happen, and neither side wants that.

Building a tire fire inside a cooling tower is either because the troops there are bored, or it might be their way of trying to act threatening - but anyone with a little knowledge of how the plants work will not be easily fooled.

Comment Re:Says more about Wells Fargo than the Employees (Score 1) 115

They are probably harder to detect than a USB type of device, but the physical turntables can't simulate periodic clicking. Not sure if the software is simply looking for cursor movement or actual clicks being generated, but it might not be fooled unless you click on something once in a while, perhaps.

Comment I smell bullshit... (Score 3, Insightful) 29

Hmm. This is like the old military joke, "Everyone wanting to volunteer for this mission, take a step forward...", and everyone but one poor schmuck takes a step backward.

This sort of seems to cancel most of the good intentions of NN. Or at least it leaves a loophole wide enough to drive at truck through.

Comment Re:Hurts the customers too (Score 1) 107

Ring doorbells, and probably others as well have a GREAT solution for sneaky Ninja stealth package deliverers - their motion detection features are excellent for detecting clandestine drop-offs and alerting you of the fact.

This is especially useful if you're in a high traffic or crime area, you'll know the moment it was dropped off. And the moment it was stolen, if you didn't get to it in time! :) Plus, if you're lucky, a video of the thief's face.

Otherwise, there are security drop-off lockers like olde tyme Milk Boxes, you can have them deliver the items into them and the lid locks closed. Presumably, it's bolted to the porch or too big and heavy to carry off, I don't know for sure as I don't own one.

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