Saturday, January 18, 2014

good luck with that Edward

Have you ever thought "is my phone listening to me even when it's turned off?"   Remember -- even after you "power off" your cell phone, the alarm works.   Which means that at least the clock continues to run, and some software is running enough to run the alarm clock application.  "Powered off" indeed.   Is it really only for dramatic effect when spies not only take the battery out but smash the phone to smithereens ?

Turns out refrigerators don't block phone signals, but other things do:
http://makezine.com/2013/06/26/edward-snowden-can-a-refrigerator-function-as-a-faraday-cage/

Also on Make:  kill your phone - from http://killyourphone.com/
http://makezine.com/2014/01/17/how-to-kill-your-phone/

and Phonekerchief ( site seems to be inactive http://myphoneisoff.com/ )
http://makezine.com/2010/11/18/phonekerchief-blocks-cell-signals/

Reminds me of the shielding wallets that claim to block RFID readers from skimming your NFC payment cards -- one of them is http://www.idstronghold.com/?gclid=CPz_wbnniLwCFYNQ7AodEFQA4g - many more googling under "rfid shielding wallet" - there's a million of them !

So if you use your phone as a NFC payment device, and you don't want thieves to skim your RFID information, you put the phone in a "safe" wallet, but then you can't receive or make phone calls, or use the internet, or send and receive email.

Hmmm.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

save a life, sing stayin alive !

http://heart.arizona.edu/cpr-video   Continuous chest compression CPR -- No check for pulse, no clear airway, no mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.  Keep blood flowing to brain.  Do it even if they are gasping.

Here is the important statistic:   every minute delay reduces chance of survival by 10%.  So waiting five minutes, chances of survival is reduced 50%.   Not for infants, small children, nor drowning victims.


Please also understand that there are appropriate and potentially inappropriate uses -- see the report from the Community Ethics Committee on withholding non-therapeutic CPR on the  CEC website at http://www.medicalethicsandme.org/ -- follow on FB and Twitter, and join the conversation on current topics.