Fake FTDI chips
It was only a matter of time before fake FTDI RS232-USB adapter chips began to appear.
http://zeptobars.ru/en/read/FTDI-FT232RL-real-vs-fake-supereal
This fascinating page shows how some anonymous Chinese company has created a fake FT232RL chip using a mask-programmable microcontroller, and printed it with the "FTDI" name and logo.
Like Prolific (the real Prolific company, that is) FTDI have updated their drivers to detect these fakes... but that also means that anyone who has bought a fake chip will have a non-working adapter.
The message is always the same: fakes are hard to spot, so buy only from reliable distributors.
FYI, the real FTDI company is a family-owned firm right here in Scotland's 'Silicon Glen'.
73 from Ian GM3SEK
EUCW Snakes and Ladders
About Snakes and Ladders
XVIII Marconi Memorial Contest HF CW
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Aim: The Marconi Memorial contest HF commemorates the II Century of Radio and its father: Guglielmo Marconi. It's a World-Wide competition: everybody can work everybody, only CW.
Jack Troster, W6ISQ SK
"John G. Troster, W6ISQ, became a Silent Key on January 11, 2014. His wife of 65 years, Marguerite (KC6NFE), was at his bedside when he passed away.
Jack, along with Vince Chinn K6KQN (now W6EE), Lee Shaklee W6BH (SK), and Don Schliesser K6RV, founded the Northern California DX Foundation in October, 1972. Jack served as an NCDXF Board member for 26 years before stepping down in July, 1998. He was the Foundation’s third President, serving from 1975 until 1986.
The Most Complete List of TO & TX Stations
Here is a list of TO & TX Stations operating from French extraterritorial areas since 1987 till Oct. 2013..
T10VB Transnistria - no DXCC Credit
Vlad Bykov, UA4WHX activated this entity as T10VB. There is no DXCC credit, also the authority issued the call T10VB is still unknown as well as chances to become a new DXCC country.
Some info from http://www.transnistria.info/
Over 1000 people died in a fight for independent freedom in 1992, which was focused on Transnistria's administrative capital of Tiraspol. The fighting was dominated by the Russian army, who eventually brought it to an end.
The country of Moldova, inside which Transnistria is situated, protested the stationing of troops in the area - Transnistrians are more sympathetic to Russian ways than the Moldovans. Transnistria occupies a thin strip of land between the Dniestr River and Ukraine.
The Transnistrians say they are an independent country - they have their own bank notes, officials, a president and their own public holidays - most of the world, however, does not recognize them as an independent country.
ZC4LI Silent Key
ZC4LI, Steve Hodgson, also known as 5B4AHA, C4C, G0LII, G6G and ZD8LII, QRV until a few weeks ago, has become a Silent Key, passing on Saturday afternoon, August 31. In April, W3UR received an email from Steve describing his first bout with cancer, in 2011, with 47cm of intestines removed, but it was too late; the cancer had already migrated to his liver.
Steve was well prepared for parting, with a plot in the Military Cemetery in Cyprus "booked." He told Bernie, "I have been living with this for over three years now, so I do tend to get a bit blase. It does not worry me at all, as long [as] it is quick and painless. I could walk off this mortal coil tomorrow. It is the ones who are left behind who have all of the sorrow. I will be well out of it".
Steve was 69. 5B4AIY, Adrian, says Steve was "an enthusiastic contest operator and had won many awards. I'm sure his call will be sorely missed." A friend has gone; yet those of us reading this remain a little longer.
Warning Key Entities Not To Use Windows 8
August 21st, 2013 - LEAKED: German Government Warns Key Entities Not To Use Windows 8 – Links The NSA
Wolf Richter - "A Special Surveillance Chip"
According to leaked internal documents from the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) that Die Zeit obtained, IT experts figured out that Windows 8, the touch-screen enabled, super-duper, but sales-challenged Microsoft operating system is outright dangerous for data security. It allows Microsoft to control the computer remotely through a built-in backdoor. Keys to that backdoor are likely accessible to the NSA – and in an unintended ironic twist, perhaps even to the Chinese.
The backdoor is called “Trusted Computing,” developed and promoted by the Trusted Computing Group, founded a decade ago by the all-American tech companies AMD, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Wave Systems. Its core element is a chip, the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), and an operating system designed for it, such as Windows 8. Trusted Computing Group has developed the specifications of how the chip and operating systems work together.
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