Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uunet!motcid!wang
From: wang@motcid.UUCP (Jerry Wang)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Sci.electronics is deteriorating!
Message-ID: <4509@manta5.UUCP>
Date: 8 Dec 90 02:24:20 GMT
References: <14647@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> <1546@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> <1548@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL
Lines: 53

murray@sun13.scri.fsu.edu (John Murray) writes:

>In article <1546@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> John Murray (That's me!) writes:
>>In article <14647@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> gbell@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Gregory Bell) writes:
>>>
>>>I am posting this to hopefully remedy a poor sig/noise ratio here on
>>>sci.electronics.
>>
>>Is is time to add a FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions periodic posting to
>>this group?

>Yes, it's me again already. I just finished getting through this
>weekend's postings -*sigh*- and have a couple more suggestions of
>what should be in an FAQ:

>>Things to include: (IMO)

>4) A short bit on VCR copy protection, and a reference to the R-E article
>    on defeating one common protection method. (what issue was that, again?)

>5) (maybe) Same thing with CD's

>6) (maybe) A list of phone numbers for the big silicon houses.
>    (definitely) A list of the various BBS's run by them.

>7) Suggestions for appropriate newsgroups.. wait! I did that one already!
>    (Fix your Nintendo? I've never even seen one, nor do I want to! *GRRRR*)

>>That's all I can think of off the bat. Should this be done? If yes, what
>>else should be included?

I believe that there are certain amount of noise in this group.  But
what's signal and what's noise may be a judgement call.  Is high tech
signal and consumer electronics noise?  I deal with a lot of DSP
techniques at work, which some may call high tech (and maybe some
will call it piece of cake).  But I am still curios about the 'low-techs'
around me and I have enjoyed reading how my video tape is protected,
how SCMS works on a DAT and how can it be defeated if I ever want to 
re-sequence all my recordings (has anyone else concluded that it can be done
on the Manchester coded digital output bit stream? i.e. external
to the DAT?), tube amplifiers, where to find cheap surplus electronics, etc.

On the other hand, what seemed to be 'high tech' and discussed here
(not often recently) are most of the time very basic in the eyes of 
experts in the field.  Shall we blame this type of discussion not 
prize winning and ask all the authors to shut up also?

Why don't we share this bandwidth peacefully and spend a little effort
to tune in to what we want to listen to (in our case it's not hard, 
the signal and the noise can be separated) and ignore what we do not like.


Jerry Wang - Motorola, Cellular Infrastructure Group