My Secure Dream laptop

"They're coming to take me away HA HA They're coming to take me away HO HO, HE HE, HA HA To the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time And I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats And they're coming to take me aWAY... HA HAAA"

(apologies to Dr Demento)

ROTFLMAO

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they *aren't* after you ;-)

-- "Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it." (Stephen Leacock)

Depends on who "those who are after you" are.

If it's a three-letter agency, with budget, they'll have you in minutes. Anywhere.

re

What if I transmit the radio signal in only one direction [i.e. towards the access point only]? Will that make it more difficult to triangulate me?

So where's Osama?

too

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 AE6EO

ior

That's the whole point of the phased array antenna system I was talking about. It can cram (almost) all of your signal into a relatively narrow beam pointed directly at the access point. It "knows" where to aim because that's where the access point's signal comes from.

I said (almost) all your signal because the physics of the situation require what are called "sidelobes" (meaning beams which don't point in the same direction as the main beam, or "lobe") to be generated which are beams of RF just like the main beam, but weaker; think diffraction pattern. The second article I referenced for you gives more details. Read them.

Mark L. Fergerson

Probably commuting into his office in Langley VA at the moment.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

And I call myself an engineer.

How could I forget the rf beam dispersal properties of the hat aren't optimal if it's not pointy. That's 1st year undergrad stuff.

Hangs head in shame. :-(

Nial.

Note that the shiny side should be *out*.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

s too

way

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 AE6EO

rrior

ll

Okay, I read the information both the links. Thanks for the help. I'm curious though, could a maser be used to avoid the sidelobe issue?

Maser is a like a laser [photons are in phase with one another, one- frequency only, one-direction only] except in the microwave spectrum instead of the light spectrum.

Since most wireless adapters/access-points, use microwave-frequency radiation to communicate, could I make myself more secure using a maser? Can the maser be efficient for the telecommunication yet small enough to use on the laptop?

Shh!

;-)

Please build you one, and hold the antenna between your legs. Notice the nice warmth this provides. It also functions as chlorine in the gene pool...

Charlie

(phased arrays)

For transmitting, yes, but...

Yeah, I know. However, even though it's the laser's ancestor there's still some spreading of the beam. Worse, the longer the wavelength, the greater the beam dispersal. In smaller words, you know how a laser pointer's spot gets bigger the farther away you shine it on something? Same for masers, only bigger. Sorry.

Oh, absolutely, though it might need its own power supply. And, it would likely need to be aimed manually; you might be able to cobble up some sort of multiple-antenna receiving array that could DF the access point and then aim the maser at it automatically with servomotors, but that would be sort of a giveaway at frinst internet cafes. I mean, think about what it would look like; a turreted thingy the size of, say, a large soup can attached to your laptop humming as it swings around... if that didn't attract Homeland Severity's attention, nothing would.

Conversely, a phased array has no moving parts and it can be built as a flat planar array which is easily hidden in the laptop lid.

A maser is much harder to hide.

Also, I don't *think* there's any way to use one for receiving, though that's less of an issue for your purposes.

Mark L. Fergerson

Silly me, of course there is; they were, and for all I know still are, used in frinst satellite receivers.

But I don't know if one can serve both receive and transmit functions. Not my area of expertise.

=A0 Mark L. Fergerson

In the White House.

laptops.

Your apology should be to Napoleon XIV who recorded it, not the DJ.

On Mar 4, 3:36=A0pm, "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: MT > They need to ship him to Gitmo and MT > waterbaord him twice a day, till MT > he decides he likes to wear clothes.

What if he LIKES the waterboarding?

Make him sit in THE COMFY CHAIR?

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

It doesn't matter. Sooner or later he'll really piss off the guards and they will drown him.

Film at 11.