- Microsoft rolls out anti-virus 1.0.
- Motorola bringing out the Cliq at $200.
- Dell brings out a ho-hum induction charger.
- Ballmer says things are stagnant.
- Newton II coming?
- Earphone standards being established in the EU.
- Bell Labs hits 100 Petabits/sec.
- New term alert: CULV. Listen and learn.
Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.
Consumer Ultra Low Voltage
Obviously it’s an acronym for “Consumer Ultra Low Voltage”. Get with the program.
Either that or some feminine oriented bacteria.
Volume limits on mp3-players? The government is controlling your music experience!! Bad idea…
Is the iPod volume that much higher compared to the 80s Walkman that I used to have on maximum volume lots of times? I still hear fine 🙂
As a DJ on FM radio and in clubs (for 18 years), I can say you can easily sense it if a volume is too much, and turn it down a bit.
Please, let the government not ruin our music experience!!
So let me get this straight. The gov. is so concerned about people going deaf from enjoying their iPods or MP3 players, that it needs to legislate volume limits. BUT…. the same gov. won’t limit the pricing of hearing aids, for people who have already gone deaf.
The fact that most such aids cost five to ten times what a player costs, hasn’t phased them. Possibly because all of Congressmen’s health care needs are seen to, as part of their job benefits. They don’t even need to leave the building, to see a doctor. What hypocrits!!
Oh pul-lease! What the gov. is really worried about is hundreds of school kids losing their hearing, so they won’t qualify for military service. That would really put a severe damper on recruitment. That their G.E.D. plan didn’t fix. They don’t want kids losing their hearing, before being sent to the battlefields. After that, they can get their heads blown off, and the government won’t care! It’s the same basic reason they’re worried about obesity in schools. But couldn’t care less about the older population getting fat. So fast food and processed food makers have very little restrictions on what they do. Well the school system brought fast food in, to save money. Cause apparently healthy food cost them too much. And when kids got too fat from eating it (and having the P.E. budget cut). They blame the kids, not the budget policy.
Now it’s younth deafness, that’s “concerning” those who wish to exploit their lives, later. Boomboxes and such didn’t worry them for the longest time. Because it mainly only deafened the black and hispanic kids. And the gov. has enough of them in the system, to cherry pick the least deaf for war. But soon as the white kids start going deaf from iPod abuse, they get “concerned”. Cause those could be future officer or NCO material. Can’t have the cream of the recruitment crop, going deaf.
# 3 Let me explain. The EU is not the US. So far the US government does care if you make yourself deaf or not.
By the way I don’t want to pay for a hearing aid for some lack wit that made themselves deaf by playing very loud music any more than I want to pay for a transplant for somebody that blew their foot off with a shot gun while trying to kill themselves.
Okay, maybe if you gave them two left feet or a really big hearing aid like the ones they advertise on tv that are are larger than a cellphone…
Ah crap let’s be fair. My father worked in a loud environment and he bought his own blasted hearing aids. They don’t cost that much. The real problem is they don’t work nearly as well as one would like.
“Ultra Low Voltage” means what, to anybody? A “3” volt computer buss? I guessing. I doubt it’s “1.5” volt. Too many physical problems with a voltage that low. Ok for digital watches. Those things could run on lemons. But they don’t drive LED screens and harddrives. So I don’t know why a five or three volt buss is considered “Ultra Low”. Maybe just plain “Low”. They need the vowel to form the term. And “Incredibly Low” was rejected (also rejected, “An Inconvenient Low Voltage”). “Consumer” is also a throw away term. As opposed to what other kind of user?
“BULC” or “Battery of Ultra Long Charge” would impress us a lot more, I should think. It’s not the voltage level that eats up battery time. It’s the amperage that’s used. Dropping the voltage, probably means they’ve just upped the appliance’s amperage. IOW, the wattage hasn’t changed at all. But it make all the old battery pack designs incompatible with the newer CULV devices. So the prices will start out higher, for a time. Until enough CULV packs are mass produced.
Maybe they did this to reduce the problem of Lithium Ion packs overheating.
#4 – I’ll clarify. I didn’t say the gov. or taxpayers should pay from hearing aids. I said the price of them would be more in line with comparable electronic devices. My MP3 player cost me $70. My elder mother’s hearing aid cost her $700! And it’s breaking down, because the cheesy ass little analog volume adjustment is wearing out. My MP3 player has a digital volume control. Why the hell can’t hearing aids have this?! She can’t afford a new $700 one, every few years. Horay for your father, if he can. Not everyone is so well off.
Hearing aids are a huge money making biz. And they’ve actually gotten Congress and the FDA, to protect the makers from too much low cost competition. And from consumers buying them OTC, like reading glasses.
About the EU vs US gov. I couldn’t get the Tech5 MP3 to download. So I commented on what I assumed was a US concern. Before I hear the live feed. Slight mix up. But governments often operate in concert. So the EU gov. may be doing what the US gov. would like to, but can’t right now. The US gov. is too busy rejecting health care reform.
Dell’s induction charger is a frivolous idea. Just more cotton candy to dazzle the consumer. I can think of several practical alternatives. Like a small magnetic clamp, that connects power like a wireless phone cradle. It pops on, the terminals self “clean” on contact. And later you just pop it off (no hard pulling, like a coaxial or bi-pin plug. The AC transformer could be built into the clamp housing. Eliminating the thin power wire breakage problem (usually near the plug end).
Making an induction plate (platter or whatever), is just way too much engineering. For such a relatively simply problem. But Dell’s solution also makes it proprietary. No cheap generic power connector cables. Cute.
maybe it;s a canadian radio station… better check with the CRTC. (Nice, the spellchecker wanted to replace “CRTC” with “Crotch”.
I like the induction charger idea, although I can see the anti-competitive part, too. If you’re using your notebook with the power cord connected, it’s all to easy to break something…. It’s also a potential advantage to things like cellphones, small cameras, hand-held radios or scanners, etc. Mostly, the idea of plugging a whole mound of equipment into a rats nest of wires is a PITA….
Regards
The government has to protect the hearing of the young. They need to be able to hear orders when they are drafted and sent to Afghanistan.
Glenn E.,
I would rather have a very efficient circuit than hope for a bigger battery. Energy densities are getting ridiculous. It could get to the point we won’t be able to take a batteries anywhere. Even then, larded-on functionaliity will eat up evry spare erg.
As for induction chargers, the efficiency is too low. Better a set of universal standard dc plugs. Three sizes, that’s all. Everybody using the same interface will extend everyone’s range, as a compatible outlet is just the next user away. Better yet a contact-based pad system like the sadly defunct Mobilewise System.