OT: Scam electronics

OK, how about the fake cache scam on 486 motherboards? And fake chipsets?

"black plastic things with metal legs on"

Then there is the market in counterfeit electronic parts, but those are not marketed as magical items to normal folk, just us :-(

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Adrian C

Thing that plugged into an outlet to turn your whole house's wiring into an antenna. All these ultrasonic pest repellents where it has been proven the audio output is beyond the pest's hearing.

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Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse

While not strictly electronic, here are a few.

The 'Cell Phone Antenna Booster (an adhesive label with a squiggly copper pattern on it).

'Pyramid power'

'Crystal power'

Copper bracelets (to prevent arthritis)

Magentic titanium necklaces

Televangelists

And the universal one - any politician's campaign ads.

Magnets to go under the mattress.

As far as a general method of identifying electronic scams, the old aphorism 'If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.' is always valid.

PlainBill

Rich Webb wrote:

Anything being used by the Security Theater folks

is, at best, being oversold relative to what it can actually do.

--and backscatter X ray gear will give more people cancer than the number of terrorists it will locate ...but Michael Chertoff had to have something to hawk after he passed out the revolving door from "Homeland Security".

The snake oil that I like that pops up every few years is the "you don't have to exercise and sweat" gizmo. It pulses "your muscles" while you lay around watching TeeVee. The effect isn't deep enough into the body to do what is advertised.

This guy isn't selling. Rather, he has been trying to get investors for decades.

He claims that his copper-disk gadget will gather 15kW of random-wavelength energy out of the air and convert it to usable electricity. He doesn't mention what that kind of a radiant field might do to a human standing next to the device. One of my favorite radio hosts, Cary Harrison, who is usually skeptical about things, fell for it hook, line, and sinker when he had Searl on his show.

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in news:ie7kp0$vhv$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

like those "shaker" LED flashlights that didn't have the coil connected,no magnet(just a mild steel bar),and had a pair of lithium coin cells actually powering the LED.

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Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

Well now,previously, I would agree with you there. However, for the last couple of years I`ve had quite bad arthritis in my hands and fingers. Bad enough to make using a screwdriver a painful experience. Chatting with a musician chum of mine, he revealed that he wore a magnetic bracelet to relieve his arthritis, and claimed it works wonders.

Somewhat sceptical, but willing to try anything once to rid myself of the rotten pain, I winkled a couple of super magnets out of an old disk drive, and made a makeshift bracelet out of a section of elasticated tube. Three weeks later, much of the pain and swelling has gone, still a bit stiff, but I can play guitar again and hold a screwdriver. I don't know if it's the magnets or wishful hoping, or maybe the arthritis got better by itself, I just know that I felt an improvement within a few days. I don't really care if there`s a rational exp0lanation or not.

There is one drawback, I keep getting attached to metallic objects!

Ron

This device is nearly 60 years old. It was called a "Relax-a-ciser", and put voltage through your abdominals to contract them. It appears that some people who used it lost weight. As to whether it could contract your abdominals sufficiently to develop a visible six-pack -- it doesn't seem likely.

"I am... De Clraw."

"Well, Mr Craw..."

"Not De Craw! De Clraw!"

That's what got me started in electronics. I was an 11 year old brat reading Popular Electronics at the time. Plenty of ads for "Turn your house wiring into a giant TV antenna" all over the place.

Inside the box was a "capacitator", which coupled the twinlead to the AC power line. If you happen to have an AC/DC TV, with no power transformer, you ran a 50% chance of getting electrocuted by the hot chassis. I liked the concept, which inspired me later to invest in the TV sales and repair business, where one could cheat the customers without also electrocuting them. Set top antennas that look like radar dishes, signal boosters, picture enhancers, bizarre looking outdoor antennas, "premium" cables, garrish colored power strips, etc are all part of the business. I've also thought of expanding one of those cell phone "signal enhancer" stickers to TV size, but don't think there's an area large enough on the current HDTV sets to attach one. I was thinking that Liquid Crystal TVs might benefit from installing a quartz crystal or other semiprecious gem stone nearby in order to benefit from the healing properties of the stone to repair or possibly prevent post warranty failures.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Or you could just invest (pun intended) in some white and gold robes, and go around 'blessing' folks TV sets - If you have faith brother you WILL get a better picture...

Ron

Ahh yes the cell phone signal enhancer that you stuck on the back of your phone, inside a cover when possible. And all those weird looking set top antennas some that looked like the were right out of a Buck Rogers TV show. Solid gold bullshit.

--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse

Well, I've wondered about the plug in things that make a noise they say that repels mice and rats. That was dubious, but they have another model that does mice, rats, ants, and cockroaches, I think it was, and I don't think that could work .

>

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in news:ie8gro$8dc$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

if your muscles contract,they use energy. It's no different than your body's own electrical system causing the muscles to contract. Except that you don't have to do it consciously,it's done by the EMS unit's electronics. EMS=electro muscle stimulation

the only difference I can see is that the EMS unit only works a few muscles around the electrodes while moving your body will work more muscle groups.

(TENS)

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

Ron Inscribed thus:

I seem to recall that there is some scientific basis for your experience.

--
Best Regards:
                     Baron.

Secret black boxes that can recharge your "Oyster" travel card, mobile top up, electricity payment card etc. These can be demonstrated working at least once before you buy it for £££'s, and find it's an LED and battery in a plastic box.

Usually sold by a nice, honest man in a pub that's doing you a favour.

Those "food compatibility" meters that respectable honest companies like H&B use in-store to test the resonant frequency of food samples and see if it harmonises with the resonant frequency of your body?. Before giving you a detailed report of foods that you are intolerant to.

Usually operated by a fully trained health practitioner in a white coat and subsequently investigated by Watchdog for being totally unreliable, unrepeatable, and apparently based on pseudo-science guff?

That sort of thing?

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Mike Brown: mjb[-at-]signal11.org.uk  |    http://www.signal11.org.uk

Bar>I seem to recall

Yup.

thay had something like that in australia it was called the abtronic

Wow. I got the relaxation down without any electronics, but if I could get some energy, that would be great. Can you send me your friend's email address.

Oh, yeah, you're right. I'll be working on it tonight. It's only

1:30 now. I feel energetic already.