From: halpin@vsg1.dsg.dec.com (Stephen E. Halpin)
Subject: Re: Considering getting an SGI indigo
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 20:34:16 GMT

In article <1992Oct5.000811.21437@utstat.uucp> philip@utstat.uucp (Philip McDunnough) writes:
>In article <1992Oct4.191654.8035@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu> audley@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Christopher D Audley) writes:
>
>[ ]
>>
>>Here's what the "Setup and Tutorial" says:
>>
   ...   <<definition of NeXT stuff as Class A, and what that means>>
>>
>
>FCC B is a requirement for home use. NeXT does not accept any responsibility
>for costs or whatever which a home user may suffer in order to correct that
>interference. What if the interference happens to result in something
>serious happening?
 
It depends on what you call "something serious".  If your neighbor has his
TV jammed when youre system is on, youll have to build a screen room.  For
some reason I recall reading something about this type of solution in QST
like a decade back.  No life critical appliance should be sensitive in any
way to the RFI from your NeXT.  If it did, ionizing air filters and vacuum
cleaners whould have been in the news ages ago for killing hundreds of people.

>I use a Cube at home. I am extremely concerned at this time re the lack of
>FCCB (and the equivalent up here) status of my equipment. It is unclear to me
>just how liable I would be for some serious mishap.
> 
>If NeXT does not want to get their equipment certified for home use (and their
>whole approach seems to be that people should be in work groups, networked
>together, programming mission critical apps) then it would not be a minor
>thing to even suggest that they should be used at home.
 
Id strongly contest this on the notion that ISDN should provide for seamless
wide area networking.  I know plenty of folks with small businesses they run
from their homes, and plenty of folk at big businesses that would love to
work from home a day or two a week, and save half a day of commuting.  Work
group computing should break down barriers of distance.

>Mine will move to work shortly unless more information is provided regarding
>the extent of liability. 
>>
>>So it looks like your OK as long as it doesn't cause a problem.  Its funny,
>>my roommate has a Mac right on the other side of the wall from my NeXTstation
>>and my monitor jinks a bit everytime he turns his machine on.  My machine
>>has never affected his.  I wonder if Mac's are Class B.
>
>Mac's, and all Apple equipment, are Class B. I can't conclude that it's OK.
>It's in fact very disconcerting.
 
Check the back of an Apple two-page display sometime.  Its Class A.  Most
17" and 21" monitors are Class A.  As 16/17" becomes a standard in the Mac
and PC communities this problem will only grow.

>Philip McDunnough
>University of Toronto
>philip@utstat.toronto.edu

BTW, isnt Toronto in Canada?  I thought you had an equivalent to the FCC
there with its own rules, classifications, and operating restrictions.
Can anyone comment on how that organization relates to FCC classifications?

-Steve
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stephen E. Halpin                    halpin@vsg1.dsg.dec.com

"You might just have to waste your life just to live."  - Soul Asylum
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