Great point-- give 'em total access to the encrypted data same as the FBI. If they have a problem with it, let the French take it up in US Courts. And let them pound sand for good measure in the process.

If this causes Apple-- and other device manufacturers-- headaches selling in France, then so be it.

Fair is fair. I personally applaud Apple for saying NO to unreasonable search and intrusion as an American citizen in US residence, even though it might likely bite them in the ass and cost them business. I hope the current legal debate works out in favor of privacy and the 4th Amendment in the US. If other countries have different laws, they are certainly entitled to enforce them within their borders. They can start by requiring all smart phones to be government issued Android: open source OS, they can craft and force all of the world's top hardware makers-- save one-- to run their preferred system. No snark intended, I am quite serious.

I'd love to see strong encryption become the norm in the industry-- I'm bothered, but not in fear of terrorism-- however each Nation can do what they want. I'll continue to enjoy being American and prefer living life with my Constitutional rights intact. If I'm killed by Terrorists with an iPhone then fuck those guys and may they roast... but I'm quite certain that I prefer to live out my time without government imposed FUD and nibshit LEOs whining that they cannot do their job without Orwellian access.

Expedient "justice" does not equal higher quality of life.

...and in this case-- per the article and/or a tiny bit of simple awareness-- old people are receiving the overwhelming share of those checks in the form of Medicare and Social Security.


I say our Baby Boomer friends (i.e. parents and grandparents) have earned those benefits. In the case of Soc Sec, they've certainly paid for them. We should give them what they have paid for. It'll hurt now-- particularly for all of us earning a living in the workforce/tax base-- but as those folks inevitably stop receiving benefits it'll all work out.

Fair's fair, and today's retirees didn't ask to be born at the same time at an incredible rate.

True. That's a good point. However, consider the enormous range of those services:

RFID: 120 KHz - 10 GHz (Generally below 2.4 GHz, with LF and UHF tags being common)
FM Broadcast: 88 MHz - 108 MHz
DTV: 55 MHz - 700 MHz (Three bands, ~55-85, ~175-210, ~470-700)
Radio Astronomy: 13 MHz - 0.8 THz or something equally nuts way up there (The VLA receives below 50 GHz)

That's way outside the scope of getting an antenna to fudge on receive. We're talking wavelengths from ~1.5 MILES to under half a millimeter !

Unless Scotty beams down and hands us an antenna from the future, TFA's mega-broadband SDR described as doing all that at the same time is science fiction. I'll buy that SDRs could possibly handle that kind of bandwidth sometime soon, but there's no way we're going to see a practical antenna system shipping with it.

FTFA: "It could record FM radio and digital television signals, read RFID chips, track ship locations, or do radio astronomy. In principle it could perform all of these functions simultaneously."

Nice try, but no. At least not in a practical sense and certainly not as a mobile rig.

Software Defined Radios are sweet but still dependent on a Physically Defined Antenna. I can see loads of wonderful uses for a broadband, frequency-agile SDR. Actually, I use them often as a Ham radio operator and they are extremely cool. However, there's still the problem of the pesky antenna. You can fudge quite a bit on a receiving antenna, not so much with a transmitting antenna (or a single transceiver antenna), and the engineers out there are very talented and clever at coming up with better designs... but it always tends to come down to the antenna.

My point is that advances in SDR tech is fantastic, but they're not-- nor do I ever see them becoming-- a magic box. What I think they WILL do is streamline production. One super SDR can be dropped into a number of application-specific boxes.

I'll be these folks lodged some of their complaints over a mobile phone. And none of them use garage door openers, or keep track of their kids at the mall using FRS radios... argh. If they don't like the idea of remote meter reading, fine-- that's one thing, and a valid discussion to be had. But unsafe RF levels ? Are you KIDDING me ?

You know, I like your approach better than the one I suggested. The learning process is more intuitive and interactive for the kids, and the result better demonstrates actual programming skills. A+ for you, here's your scratch & sniff sticker. :)

Absolutely correct--- the parent must either be, well, a PARENT or a teacher (perhaps both). Choose an EXTREMELY simple, straightforward physical task, break that task up into absolutely fundamental chucks, assign a [child-unit]* to each chunk, execute. *[child-unit]: Depending on how many kids you have and how you want to structure things, assign your kids to work as either individuals or small groups. I'll return to this in a bit... For 2nd grade, I'd suggest opening up by having the children consider single-task robots. They'll dig that. A bot can perform ONE physical movement. The task is to move a box from Table A to Table B. Break the movements into chucks like this: a: Grab box, elevate from table height to chest height b: Accept box at chest height and pivot left/right from a stationary position c: Accept box at chest height and move back and forth on a linear path from Table A to Table B d: Accept box at chest height and pivot left/right from a stationary position e: Accept box at chest height, lower to table height and release Following this model, you need three kinds of kid-robots: Lift/Lower, swivel cargo, transport cargo. If you explain and demonstrate each chunk, they'll get it. For 4th grade, do the same except lead them in a discussion to discover that the 5 chunks only require three discrete actions, and have them outline the order on the chalkboard. In essence, they'll be writing code. Good luck, consult the classroom teacher for assistance with the lesson plan, and above all HAVE FUN !!

OMG !!! ...what a jackass.

5.25" floppies ? I was pissed when I first got XP and tried to install a 5.25" drive just to be a nut. Joke was on me. I still have two unopened boxes of Elephant media from way back that I was going to use. Clever: 0, Progress: 1