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Old 06-03-2009, 03:50 PM   #41
doctorevilbrain
 
Join Date: May 2009
Default Re: Why does the future only begin at TL9?

I don't think I was being belligerent. I'll definitely was angry @ this computer. I hate typing, and I hate how I have to stop and correct it when I make a mistake. I'm sorry if I offended anyone. After seeing how dumb computers are at simply trying to put what you want on the screen, it makes me wonder how computers are supposed to take over the world in the future! What do you think should be in Ultra Tech 4ed, that was in Ultra Tech 1 & 2,that isn't in there? What about Transhuman Space? I don't have that book,but i've recently looked in it, and there doesn't seem to be anything major missing. I mentioned David Pulver, because , I was hoping he would tell us why he made the decisions that he did. That's all. I don't understand why the Flashlight has a UV mode. Sure it can't be seen in normal light, or Infrared, but it doesn't change the fact that UV is dangerous. I wouldn't want to be hit by the beam, no matter what type of UV is was. I read that TEMPEST is a myth on the Net, and I have no reason to believe differently. I know fully well that not everthing on the Net is true,but I also have no reason that TEMPEST is a myth isn't true.
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Old 06-03-2009, 05:07 PM   #42
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: Why does the future only begin at TL9?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
Sometime between now and TL9, we're apparently scheduled to replace all our current battery sizes. And fairly significantly change their cost scaling and density. You'll know it's the future when you can't buy a car battery, but a 20-lb battey the size of a backpack is realiy a fairly common.
What would you like them to say about that? Remember that High Tech was written, what, two years after Ultra-Tech?
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Old 06-03-2009, 05:08 PM   #43
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Default Re: Why does the future only begin at TL9?

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Originally Posted by doctorevilbrain View Post
would tell us why he made the decisions that he did. That's all. I don't understand why the Flashlight has a UV mode. Sure it can't be seen in normal light, or Infrared, but it doesn't change the fact that UV is dangerous. .
To vampires. Which are of course a big threat in the future.
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Old 06-03-2009, 05:28 PM   #44
Anthony
 
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Default Re: Why does the future only begin at TL9?

A normal black light is UVA, and is basically harmless at the intensities needed for a flashlight (less dangerous than sunlight). Independent of any night vision effects, it's also a convenient way to cause fluorescence which isn't washed out by direct reflections.
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Old 06-03-2009, 05:52 PM   #45
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Default Re: Why does the future only begin at TL9?

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Originally Posted by doctorevilbrain View Post
...After seeing how dumb computers are at simply trying to put what you want on the screen...
Computers are actually very good about putting what you want on the screen - mine does it all day long for me. Maybe you need practice with a keyboard! :)

Quote:
I don't understand why the Flashlight has a UV mode.
Dunno. Might be useful with UV goggles?

Quote:
I read that TEMPEST is a myth on the Net, and I have no reason to believe differently. I know fully well that not everthing on the Net is true,but I also have no reason that TEMPEST is a myth isn't true.
Well. I have no reason to believe you aren't a myth :) and, since I've worked directly with and for some pretty smart folks in the government that say it IS true I'mma go with that. What's your source on this, BTW? Please post it. Wikipedia isn't exactly the best source either but it thinks TEMPEST is real. Please post a link if you've got it.
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Old 06-03-2009, 06:21 PM   #46
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Default Re: Why does the future only begin at TL9?

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Originally Posted by doctorevilbrain View Post
I read that TEMPEST is a myth on the Net, and I have no reason to believe differently. I know fully well that not everthing on the Net is true,but I also have no reason that TEMPEST is a myth isn't true.
Uh... I'm sorry?

That... that's really not something I'm comfortable with addressing.

Let me see if I understand this. In general, both scientists and experts in the field will confirm the principles TEMPEST is based on. The military makes sure to use only computers that are shielded from it. A bright electrical engineer student can build equipment to do this to older computers from Radio Shack components.

But you read on the Internet* that it is a myth and you feel that the authors of Ultra-Tech should take this nameless source over all other sources.

I'm curious. Why?

I can find webpages that insist that anything from AIDS to history (yes, all of it) is a myth. I can find webpages that tell me how dumb people are for believing in the myth of the Earth as a globe or the myth of the Holocaust.

But just because I can doesn't mean I should. And it certainly doesn't mean that SJ Games should abandon all attempts at actual fact checking just so they'll books will match what you read somewhere on the Internet.

*Further information on source not available.
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Old 06-03-2009, 06:32 PM   #47
Anaraxes
 
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Default Re: Why does the future only begin at TL9?

Quote:
I read that TEMPEST is a myth on the Net, and I have no reason to believe differently.
Van Eck did construct a proof-of-concept machine for his original 1985 paper.

http://jya.com/emr.pdf

And it's possible that these guys are lying, but why would you assume that?

http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2...at-cebit-2006/

For what it's worth, I could once purely accidentally pick up the signal from my computer monitor on a TV in the next room. (It was an old Commodore 1910 monitor for an Amiga; the common video frequency probably helped.) The display wasn't readable -- quite -- but it was clearly text that matched the computer, and you could watch activity. I've got no reason to doubt purpose-built equipment couldn't have resolved the image better. (And since you read my claim on the Internet, you know it has to be true.)

Countermeasures and design requirements to interfere with this sort of eavesdropping are certainly real.

Black government vans with tinted windows driving up and down all the streets snooping your keyboard signals are probably not real. Unless Google Streetview is not what it seems...
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Old 06-03-2009, 06:44 PM   #48
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Default Re: Why does the future only begin at TL9?

A friend of my cousin's brother's roommate's Internet chat friend works for the NSA (did I make that scary enough looking?) and they do have black vans that drive up and down the street picking up signals from people's keyboards. Yes they do. How else do you think the tabloids get all of their juicy stories?
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Old 06-03-2009, 06:54 PM   #49
Crakkerjakk
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Default Re: Why does the future only begin at TL9?

The puzzle palace is so cool. It'd be so much fun to work someplace like that.
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Old 06-03-2009, 07:02 PM   #50
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Default Re: Why does the future only begin at TL9?

I worked on the periphery, via the Army - they were our bosses, but not directly. We had a couple of agency folks in our shop though and they were smart crackers - it was a small group, maybe 10 people at its largest.

I nearly died laughing when I watched Enemy of the State. Fun movie...completely stupid premise and tech.
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