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"Wi-Fi Refugees" Shelter in West Virginia Mountains 627

Posted by samzenpus from the break-out-the-tinfoil dept.
The 13,000 sq mile U.S. Radio Quiet Zone is an area in West Virginia where all wireless transmissions are banned because of the large number of radio telescopes located there. (This official page shows a map of the Zone; an old Wired article is fascinating reading.) These high-tech telescopes have attracted unlikely neighbors, people who claim to have Wi-Fi allergies. In recent years, scores of people have moved to the area to escape the "damage" that electromagnetic fields can cause them. From the article: "Diane Schou is unable to hold back the tears as she describes how she once lived in a shielded cage to protect her from the electromagnetic radiation caused by waves from wireless communication. 'It's a horrible thing to have to be a prisoner,' she says. 'You become a technological leper because you can't be around people. It's not that you would be contagious to them — it's what they're carrying that is harmful to you.'"

Comment Re:Think Tank (Score 1) 282

by acmwallace (#37100362) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Laptop + DSLR Backpacks

I agree about the ThinkTank bags - I have 3 different ones for different circumstances, but they are extremely well-made bags. Very solid. Thom Hogan has an article on bags (http://bythom.com/bags.htm) which is quite good. But sticking with ThinkTank, LowePro, Kata, Tenba... you won't get a piece of garbage. You might not get the perfect bag for your purposes, but it won't be garbage.

Comment TSA Theater, indeed.... (Score 1) 457

by acmwallace (#36635814) Attached to: Time To Close the Security Theater

I have been calling it TSA Theater for years, usually while I am in line, waiting to get groped while I anxiously watch to make sure someone doesn't make off with my laptop and cameras while I get me TSA crotch massage. And really, guys - I can put explosives in my Tevas?

I have one leg. When I travel, I wear shorts, cause it just makes things a little quicker - they usually just wave me into the little glass cubicle and mutter "male assist" into their shoulder. Then they explain to me that they are going to touch me as they pull on their rubber gloves (not the most reassuring of sequences). And then the fondling begins. And then they wipe down my hands and prosthesis with a swab and go check that out for explosive residue. Like I couldn't/wouldn't clean myself if I was a bomb maker.

For the record: All TSA employees have been courteous and polite, and many have had a sense of humor about it, laughing when I offer to just strip naked and let them run my clothes through their x-ray (which I will do if they ever say yes. I'm not proud). I have never had a negative experience from TSA - except for the actual experience, of course. Thankfully, cause I don't think I would sit very quietly for the kind of shit I hear about. Though there was that one time the fondling got a little too personal...

It's just theater, folks. They might catch the most stupid of terrorists (you know, the ones that actually answer yes when asked if they are carrying explosives?), but google "myth busters" and TSA to see how one of the MythBusters guys (Jamie?) accidentally took some really sharp blades onto an airline flight.

Sigh. It won't go away, though. Too much money being made by the private sector who build the machines, and contract the labor. Money talks, and we get fondled.

Apple Orders 10 Million Tablets? 221

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the pricepoint-better-be-right dept.
Arvisp writes "According to a blog post by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, Apple plans to produce nearly 10 million tablets in the still-unannounced product's first year. If Lee's blog post is to be believed, Apple plans to sell nearly twice as many tablets as it did iPhones in the product's first year."
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PhD Candidate Talks About the Physics of Space Battles 361

Posted by samzenpus from the load-photon-torpedoes dept.
darthvader100 writes "Gizmodo has run an article with some predictions on what future space battles will be like. The author brings up several theories on propulsion (and orbits), weapons (explosives, kinetic and laser), and design. Sounds like the ideal shape for spaceships will be spherical, like the one in the Hitchhiker's Guide movie."

Comment a guild... hmmm... (Score 1) 209

by acmwallace (#413674) Attached to: Making Software Suck Less, Pt. II
My current favorite thought about programming: Always code as if the person responsible for maintaining your code is a maniac serial killer who knows where you live. Too many coders forget that. I actually like the guild idea myself. Good programming is a bit of an art-form, a craft, so why not a guild?

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