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Hero
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Hero
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 2,020 |
Which lead to the famous repost: "I have milk on the doorstep, does that mean I own a cow"
My spelling is not bad. I am typing this on a Medigenic keyboard and I blame that for all my typos.
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 135
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 135 |
Rojo - my understanding of how the 'old type' TV detector vans used to work and thus know you had a TV is this: People in the van will fire an RF signal at your property. If you have a TV, the local oscillator on the TV will pick up the signal and re-radiate it. As you know, the local oscillator is at a pre-set frequency, and if your TV re-radiates the signal - hey presto, you have a TV. It doesn't even need to be on, they are just looking for a re-radiated signal. The best way to stop it would have been to shield the local oscillator, but that's another story. It's not rocket science but I can understand how they would like to keep it from becoming public knowledge.
How it works with digital - no idea.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 14,802 Likes: 72
Super Hero
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OP
Super Hero
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 14,802 Likes: 72 |
Meanwhile, someone else has advised me as follows:-
TV detection with the 625 Line system was based on the line timebase high voltage transformer LOPT's (Line Out Put Transformer) electromagnetic field. It produced considerable radiation; for a good 50 feet or more. So using a BBC receiver within the van to monitor the off-air signal via its line-time-base on a 'scope, you could detect the radiation from the TV within a house, and identify the channel it was receiving by comparing the two signals. Today however, it's impossible to detect any useful signal from a flat screen TV, where radiation from any local oscillator is well screened, and no line timebase to detect any more. What TV's, and other domestic products, radiate is wide spectrum hash-noise. And if these also use SMPS's (Switched Mode Power Supply) - they wipe out most HF Short-wave reception and low band too.
For more ... see this .pdf. 
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Hero
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Hero
Joined: Jul 2002
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The computer mouse is 50 years old and it inventor has just died. He was one of the men with that special spark and imagination that made computing what it is today. Here is how the mouse got its name, and this is the first mouse demo.
My spelling is not bad. I am typing this on a Medigenic keyboard and I blame that for all my typos.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 14,802 Likes: 72
Super Hero
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Super Hero
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 14,802 Likes: 72 |
One by one the (true) Legends are falling by the wayside.  Like most geniuses, Doug was a visionary. He was way ahead of everyone else. Not only the mouse, but also the concept of "windows". He also actually built the stuff he dreamed up. And yet his "manager" still asked:- "why are you funding this guy"?  For a slightly different take, see this one.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 14,802 Likes: 72
Super Hero
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Super Hero
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 14,802 Likes: 72 |
Twenty years of NT.
If you don't inspect ... don't expect.
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 2,020
Hero
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Hero
Joined: Jul 2002
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Here is an interesting article on the start of office automation and computing. I read the opening paragraphs Do you remember the office before email? Before we spent our time watching cat videos and doing surreptitious grocery shopping online?
As an experiment I turned off my office computer and kept it all off all day. I found I could think - just about - but had nothing to think about. I couldn't work, or communicate. I couldn't even skive. I was a non-person.
and thought "How true" Robert
My spelling is not bad. I am typing this on a Medigenic keyboard and I blame that for all my typos.
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Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 796 Likes: 13
Philosopher
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Philosopher
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 796 Likes: 13 |
From the same article.. Computers are so clever that it sometimes feels as if they do our thinking for us. No, never, computers are the dumbest machines of all time, they only do what they are told (despite what it may seem like at times). I, however, do remember what it was like before (oh god, I'm soooooooooo old  ). The fax, now that was a revolution. No more dependency on the horrors or the postal system and, clearly, anything that came off the magic machine must be of high importance and must be dealt with NOW. That being said, email, spreadsheets, databases etc (with the possible exception of Power Point) are great tools, but only tools. They have increased the pace of business and, if used well, the ability to provide a quality business/service but, we need to be selective and concentrate on the important stuff. But then, that has always been what we should be doing.
Thoughts and information provided on this forum are mine and mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the policy of NSW Health. They may also be complete bollocks!!
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 14,802 Likes: 72
Super Hero
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Super Hero
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 14,802 Likes: 72 |
I won't be reading the article, as (from the quotes we have seen) it was obviously written by a clueless "modern" person. @Dave: yes, the fax was a great leap forward ... but some of us have actually used a Telex machine!
If you don't inspect ... don't expect.
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Posts: 188
Mentor
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Mentor
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 188 |
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