Posts by Sam Jelfs 31 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Apr 2008
I guess it depends if they are literally copying the circuit board or designing their own? Given that the Bug Muff, for instance, is just 4 transistors, 4 diodes, and a handful of capacitors and resistors, it's not like there is much to them. The Big Muff "took inspiration" from previous designs from other manufacturers anyway...
I use Garmin, but my OH is a Suunto user, and that really is awful, makes Garmin look amazing by comparison! I basically never use the app, it's just there to sync my watch to other sites, fetcheveryone.com for analytics, and plotaroute.com for creating routes (Favourite a route on plotaroute and it gets automatically sent to garmin connect and then onto compatible devices)
When you apply for a patent there is a 1 year window where it is still secret, and only the examiner at the patent office gets to see it. If for whatever reason it is not granted after that year, then it is never published / made public. Getting access to applications before they are published could give you a strategic advantage....
I have a Garmin watch for running that has a "fall / crash" detection feature, which does similar in that if it detects shocks above a certain threshold it will give an alarm and if you don't clear the alarm within 30 seconds will trigger an emergency message to some designated contacts.
I have it turned off after some false triggers while intentionally throwing myself down some rough trails.
@Headley_Grange - Thats one of the things I like best about Garmin, how easy it is to get your data "out". Automatic sync of data from Garmin to other sites, strava and FetchEveryone in my case, means I very rarely actually look at the garmin connect website. My O/H has a suunto, and has had quite a few issues getting it to talk nicely to others.
I know a few trail runners that have the Atom, and must say I'm tempted by the Atom XL. Having a phone that I don't have to worry about, can use as a back-up GPS should my others fail, and is fairly cheap certainly appeals. The larger screen size, which whilst it comes with a physical size / weight cost, would make it easier to use, especially with cold tired hands.
except at no point did the paper actually test any of the consumer products on the market. They took a 3 year old CNN from a conference challenge, and fed it noisy data that it had never been trained on, and say that is proof that consumer products probably can't handle the noisy data either...
I think the Fenix 5+ is aimed at a very different market than things like the ticwatch though. I have an older fenix3, and when it finally dies on me the 5+ will be the first choice I think (depending on what they have brought out by then, or if suunto ever make something decent)
I use a GPS tracker for a number of reasons - in training I use it to monitor my effort level (say some days I want to train at a specific level, esp forcing myself to run slower than I normally would), and also to quantify improvements over time, when I run the same route. But more importantly the main reason I bought the device I did was for navigation when out trail running, much easier having a device tell you which direction to run than having to read a map.
Seen as I have a "smart" device (and I'm not sure a garmin sportswatch really compares in functionality to something like an iDevice, but thats another matter), I use it. I bought it for running a few specific events, but why not use it for the rest of the runs?
I have 2 APs in the house, or rather one in the house that is also the modem / TV box, and one in the garage. Yet I still have to run a fixed cable to my OHs office on the 2nd floor because the signal is so poor through the precast concrete building. I can't get mobile phone signal in the house, I have to go outside if I want a reliable voice call...
Its worth noting the authors write in their conclusion that "The main problem is in
the insecure design of the ZLL [ZigBee Light Link] standard itself", yes the attack was possible due to a leaked key in the Philips implementation, but the underlying standard is poor to start with, and there are some 1000+ ZigBee certified devices on the market from various makers.
A few points...
The car didn't catch fire, some batteries that had been ejected did.
The occupant was already deceased.
The issue was with how to remove the body from the car / the car from the road, whilst making sure there was no risk of electrocution to the fire brigade, can't say I blame the fire service for being cautious given the maount of damage and chance of other stuff shorting out...
Back around 2001/2002 I was a student in the 6th form trying to apply for universities... UCAS applications had to be done on the school computer system using some custom software, just a shame the network firewall as also set up to block any site with the word 'sex' in it... Want to study at middlesex university, sussex university, et al, tough, can't look at their websites. (not necessarily a bad thing mind ;) )
Ambrose and colleagues presented a paper on these headphones at the AES 130th convention in London this weekend[1]. At the same conference they also gave a paper on the dangers of reproducing sound in a closed ear canal, and how it can cause serious damage, as well as causing timpanic membrane excursions in the order of 1000 times greater than would normally be seen[2]...
So yes, they have created a nice piece of tech that can easily block out back ground noises (and what isn't mentioned is that the greater the background noise, the greater the inflation of the envelope, so the greater the isolation), but at the same time they have also said that blocking the ear drum is bad....
@paul_murphy - the whole point being that you wont need noise cancellation if you can get a good enough seal in the ear canal so as to block out back ground noise... noise cancellation is for headphones or poorly isolating earphones... as to the cable, they could theoretically be wireless / bluetooth, but then you have to add in some bulky battery / processor unit as well as some form of interconnect between in-ear drivers and said unit... personally, that would annoy me more than having a cable (but not as much as having too short a cable that wont comfortably reach the device in my pocket....)
[1] Diaphonic Pump: A Sound-Activated Alternating to Static Pressure Converter - Stephen D. Ambrose, Robert Schulein, and Samuel Gido, presented at the 130th convention of the Audio Engineering Society, London, 13th-16th May 2011. (paper no 8361)
[2]Sound Reproduction within a Closed Ear Canal: Acoustical and Physiological Effects -
Samuel P. Gido, Robert B. Schulein, and Stephen D. Ambrose presented at the 130th convention of the Audio Engineering Society, London, 13th-16th May 2011. (paper no 8319)
Abstracts for both papers available at http://www.aes.org/events/130/papers/ - papers available with an AES subscription...
I didn't realise sheetrock was a Victorian product... one would assume a victorian house to be built from fairly sturdy brick walls with no cavity and thick timber and joist floors... all the victorian places i've lived in around the UK have been built without a bit of dry wall / sheetrock anywhere.
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