Crunchified

Diverging slightly from the topic, Palm (the Palm Pilot company) at one point had a market cap higher than all US airlines combined.

A big externality is time-savings, and can be calculated.

I am simply grateful that I don't live in the United States of Vespucciland.

It is NOT the insurance company's job to replace a worn-out roof. That is YOUR responsibility! If a roof on your home is not up to the proven (albeit occasional) stresses of your local environment (including snowfall, winds, volcanic ash, etc.), whether due to quality, design, or wear, I see no reason why the insurer should not modify its indemnity. I will grant you that a decent insurer would allow you to petition for a review based on any verifiable additional information that you, as owner and insured, might be able to present.

Take that carbon mic element and tap it repeatedly on a hard surface to loosen up the granules of carbon that need to be able to move round in there when you speak into it. You may find that it improves the fidelity noticeably.

But how will Amazon sell all those Echo products without Alexa?

It's what most people in leadership roles think leadership is (or should be). And they are SO wrong.

These guys aren't using their cell phones to keep warm, I'm quite sure. It's true that Lithium Ion Polymer batteries, so very popular in portable rechargeable devices (and prone to the occasional thermal runaway) usually don't do well below 0°C. But that's not likely to be what they'd choose for such a mission. Simple Energizer brand AA/AAA disposable lithium batteries work fine down to about -40°, and can generally power heated socks and gloves etc. without any modification, and aren't particularly expensive given their considerably greater energy capacity and much wider temperature tolerance over alkaline formulations. The disposable lithiums weigh a good bit less than alkalines, too...for, you know, when every gram counts?

Edit: Also, these batteries aren't necessarily exposed to outside temperatures. Strategically placed near the body, they can be kept at higher temperatures for greater power efficiency - but if they are exposed to outside temps, they will not die as easily as your (pathetically useless in this situation) cell phone batteries would.

Lithiums don't work in cold temperatures? That's a new one on me. Many lithium battery formulations work in colder conditions than other common formulations. I don't read the NYT so didn't read the article, but were they climbing in temperatures well below -40° with exposed batteries? I know that lithiums are commonly used in balloon payloads that can get mighty cold!

Proper cash is a source of freedom. It doesn't even have serial numbers. It has weight and defined properties, but they took all that away from us quite a while ago. Until recently, the paper with numbers and faces on it still served as a fairly usable facsimile, but the powers-that-be continue to take those "privileges" away from us, the undeserved underfolk. Just wait until CBDCs are thrust upon us - that'll take care of the last vestiges of freedom that cash currency, and previously real money, had given us.

They have changed the concept of money, a natural right, into a constructed privilege.

Cash is just one of those freedoms things big government hates. Through money-laundering laws, gov gets to stick its nose into ALL of our lives to treat us all as the potential criminals they know we are. The latest thing their ever-tightening regulations do is to threaten our bank accounts based on mere suspicious behavior.

How about Puget Sound (Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia...), where there are ferries all over. Several routes have "foot ferries" (no cars) offering rides with added speed to get the commuters to home or work across several miles of semi-open waters. Only rarely are waves a serious factor, and I don't know if that's even serious enough to affect this watercraft. Just one example of where this could really be useful and profitable. I can think of others.. Chesapeake Bay, Lake Champlain, Great Lakes...

Dark website patterns are the internet's embodiment of the sleazy salesperson.

You want the product, the sales guy wants to upsell you and increase his profit margin (corresponding to sales commission). Nobody likes to be sold at like this, but many companies are perfectly happy being represented by such sleazebag salesmanship.

IF the fees are just "fluff" that adds pure profit to the goods or services rendered, then these new fees regulations will have the government's desired effect. But if the fees are needed to cover costs and expenses, they WILL be incorporated into the bottom line prices, and the regulations will force the advertised prices to rise in lieu of the fees.

As in any "free-market" system, the cost structures of each business will govern its competitiveness and the amount of profit that competition will allow.

And, as usual, the government will find out that further regulating free markets (a three-word oxymoronical phrase) will not achieve the stated goals of lowering the public's costs of goods and services. It might, however, level the playing field in ways that appeal to voters who rely on government to solve all their woes.

I know, now. I used search on this site for "Amazon" but results were obviously not complete enough to be helpful. Any advice on how not to duplicate, short of paging through the submissions to the nth degree?

I checked the guidelines and FAQs. I emailed the contact info but haven't heard their answer yet, either. Sigh.

This was my first submission, and I don't want to repeat this mistake!

Amazon is cutting “several hundred” jobs in its Alexa division to focus more on generative AI, the company announced Friday. (Seattle Times)

How about banning unions for any government employees? These employees should be held accountable only to the public and its elected representatives.

Good article, but I wonder why the photo of Thomson Correctional Center appears to show it to be an Illinois Department of Corrections prison rather than a federal prison?

I just don't see anything fundamentally unique about an encrypted communications stream that would require it to be used on the ham bands for 'furthering the radio arts.' Any stream being developed or tested for use over the air should be able to be effectively tested in the clear as allowed by amateur rules. Then further testing (incorporating encryption) can be done over internet or closed circuits. It seems to me that encryption as such is unlikely to have any fundamental effect on the outcome of on-air testing.

Sure you can. This still does not ensure that the communications embedded within the encrypted portion of the data does not violate amateur rules. Encryption of communications effectively removes the ability of hams (and government regulators) to monitor their service for rule breakers. It would invite commercial users to exploit hams' valuable bandwidth.

I would go so far as to say encryption is not needed in the amateur radio domain, outside of limiting access to the control and configuration of remote devices. The established goals of the amateur radio service can be achieved without encrypted communications.

At my college radio station, every applicable record had intro time cues written on a label on the record jacket. You would know that there was, say, seven seconds you could talk over before the song began in earnest. "Hitting the post" (not familiar with the term) was not really a problem for the deejays. p.s. - I loved being able to inject our call letters into the gap on 'Riders On the Storm', timed to the top or bottom of the hour.

...or perhaps, Robin Williams syndrome?

I am not familiar with this kind of security device, but doesn't it stand that to take home a certain desired object you'd simply bring along an object of similar weight and exchange it?

I recall the DAK ads from my teenage cheap subscription to Stereo Review magazine.

Bought a few things from him, like a cordless stereo headset. For that one I had to string an (included) thin insulated wire around my room - like an invisible fence! But it sounded good to me, and was inexpensive enough for a kid like me its day.

But my favorite sales pitch from DAK was for the Gorilla Banana printer, a super-cheap dot matrix parallel printer with a stupid name that made it ever more sellable - at least by Drew! Unfortunately I had no computer to buy it for...but I eventually found a couple of them in use in my business department's computer lab!

Exactly. After all, who do the police go to in order to obtain a search warrant? A judge, of course!

To the police (and bailiffs, too, I would think), the judiciary is the source of all their powers.

Perhaps an overview of FCC amateur radio licensing in the U.S. is in order:

The (entry level) Technician license gives ALL amateur privileges above 30 MHz - that's the bottom of the VHF region and up. So that's all VHF, UHF, and microwave bands and modes (FM, sideband, AM, digital...) allocated to U.S. hams, at maximum power levels permitted to hams. Small allocations in a few HF bands below 30 MHz with limited power levels and modes are also included to offer Technician class licensees a taste of shortwave operations.

The General license adds access to much (or all) of each HF (shortwave) amateur radio band (frequencies lower than 30 MHz), including all the modes permitted there, and full power. Having access to all the ham HF bands means you can choose the band that is working best for you at any given time.

The Amateur Extra license adds access to the remaining parts of HF bands that are not fully allocated to General licensees. In other words, there's some "Extra only" sections of several popular HF bands. There's a handful of other minor privileges as well, not directly related to frequencies, power, or modes.

The Technician license requirements must be completed before taking the General exam, just as General is required for Amateur Extra. However, all three tests may be taken at one exam session as long as each respective test gets a passing score (70% or better).

ARRL members do indeed receive <callsign>@arrl.net email forwarding as a benefit, should they choose to use it.

Every photographer that earns his/her salt knows that the secret to a good shot does NOT lie in the camera alone.

I do have to say that Apple's constant improvements in iPhone camera technology is to be applauded - they make for some compelling reasons to stay upgraded even while telephony itself is somewhat mired :P . But there is so much more than the camera involved in capturing an image. We tend to forget that cameras can only sense light, and the computer behind it can only work with the raw material fed to it. Providing that light, and the shadows that accompany it, continues to add to the artistry and skill of the cinematographer's work.

I’m not ignorant of why this happened, although a bit bitter nonetheless. I can only hope that the FCC can respond by becoming more of an enforcer and more mindful that we hams (about a million of us, iirc) are now paying for their services.

Well, other FCC users are commercial users of the airwaves. Wouldn’t it make sense that their fees would cover the costs of “ongoing support” of the citizenry’s non-commercial use of radio spectrum? It’s not like they have to build roads or buildings to make this happen - it’s just some rulemaking and a database.

If you’re not aware, hams have for many years received paltry (at best) support from the FCC in terms of any enforcement.