Pesticide resistance

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Factors

Pesticides that fail to break down quickly and remain in the area contribute to selection for resistant organisms even after they are no longer being applied.

In response to pesticide resistance, farmers may resort to increased use of pesticides, exacerbating the problem. In addition, when pesticides are toxic toward species that feed on or compete with pests, the pest population will likely expand further, requiring more pesticides. This is sometimes referred to as pesticide trap, or a pesticide treadmill, since farmers are continually paying more for less benefit. raw cashew nut

Insect predators and parasites which live on other insects generally have smaller populations and are therefore much less likely to develop resistance than are the primary targets of the pesticides, such as mosquitoes and those that feed on plants. This can compound the pest problem because these species normally keep pest populations in check. But resistant predators of pest species can be bred in laboratories, which can help keep pest populations down. fresh chestnuts

The fewer sources of food a pest has the more likely it is to develop resistance, because it is exposed to higher concentrations of pesticides and has less opportunity to breed with populations that have not been exposed. Other factors in the speed with which a species develops resistance are generation time and fecundity (shorter generations and more offspring lead to resistance more quickly). raw cashews

Examples

Resistance has developed in a variety of different pest species: Resistance to insecticides was first documented by A. L. Melander in 1914 when scale insects demonstrated resistance to an inorganic insecticide. Between 1914 and 1946, 11 additional cases of resistance to inorganic insecticides were recorded. The development of organic insecticides, such as DDT, gave hope that insecticide resistance was an issue of the past. Unfortunately, by 1947 housefly resistance to DDT was documented. With the introduction of every new insecticide class cyclodienes, carbamates, formamidines, organophosphates, pyrethroids, even Bacillus thuringiensis cases of resistance surfaced within two to 20 years.

In the US, studies have shown that fruit flies that infest orange groves were becoming resistant to malathion, a pesticide used to kill them.

In Hawaii and Japan, the diamondback moth developed a resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis about three years after it began to be used heavily.

In England, rats in certain areas have developed such a strong resistance to rat poison that they can consume up to five times as much of it as normal rats without dying.

DDT is no longer effective in preventing malaria in some places, a fact which contributed to a resurgence of the disease.

In the southern United States, the weed Amaranthus palmeri, which interferes with production of cotton, has developed widespread resistance to the herbicide Roundup.

Multiple resistance

Multiple resistance is the phenomenon in which a pest is resistant to more than one class of pesticides. This can happen if one pesticide is used until pests display a resistance and then another is used until they are resistant to that one, and so on. Cross resistance, a related phenomenon, occurs when the genetic mutation that made the pest resistant to one pesticide also makes it resistant to other pesticides, especially ones with similar mechanisms of action or ones in the same class.

Physiology

Frequently a pest becomes resistant to a pesticide because it develops physiological changes that protect it from the chemical. In some cases, a pest may gain an increased number of copies of a gene, allowing it to produce more of a protective enzyme that breaks down the pesticide into less toxic chemicals. Such enzymes include esterases, glutathione transferases, and mixed microsomal oxidases. Alternately, the number of biochemical receptors for the chemicals may be reduced in the pest, or the receptor may be altered, reducing the pest's sensitivity to the compound. Behavioral resistance has also been described for some chemicals; for example, some Anopheles mosquitoes developed a preference for resting outside that prevented them from coming in contact with pesticide sprayed on interior walls.

Blowfly maggots produce an enzyme that confers resistance to organochloride insecticides. Scientists have researched ways to use this enzyme to break down pesticides in the environment, which would detoxify them and prevent harmful environmental effects. Later they discovered a similar enzyme produced by soil bacteria that also breaks down organochloride insecticides but which works faster and remains stable in a variety of conditions. The product, called Landguard is used in Australia to decontaminate spray equipment, soil and water after pesticide spraying and spills.

Management

Pest resistance to a pesticide is commonly managed through pesticide rotation, which involves alternating among pesticide classes with different modes of action to delay the onset of or mitigate existing pest resistance. Different pesticide classes may have different effects on a pest. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or USEPA) designates different classes of fungicides, herbicides and insecticides. Pesticide manufacturers may, on product labeling, require that no more than a specified number of consecutive applications of a pesticide class be made before alternating to a different pesticide class. This manufacturer requirement is intended to extend the useful life of a product.[citation needed] LOSER Tankmixing pesticides is the combination of two or more pesticides with different modes of action in order to improve individual pesticide application results and delay the onset of or mitigate existing pest resistance.

Another strategy is to avoid using pesticides more often than necessary.

See also

Antibiotic resistance

Vavilovian mimicry

References

^ a b c d PBS (2001), Pesticide resistance. Retrieved on September 15, 2007.

^ Insecticide Resistance Action Committee (2007), Resistance Definition. Retrieved on September 15, 2007.

^ grapes.msu.edu. How pesticide resistance develops. Excerpt from: Larry Gut, Annemiek Schilder, Rufus Isaacs and Patricia McManus. Fruit Crop Ecology and Management, Chapter 2: "Managing the Community of Pests and Beneficials." Retrieved on September 15, 2007.

^ a b c Miller GT (2004), Sustaining the Earth, 6th edition. Thompson Learning, Inc. Pacific Grove, California. Chapter 9, Pages 211-216.

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Daly H, Doyen JT, and Purcell AH III (1998), Introduction to insect biology and diversity, 2nd edition. Oxford University Press. New York, New York. Chapter 14, Pages 279-300.

^ a b c Marten, Gerry on-pesticide management for escaping the pesticide trap in Andrah Padesh, India. ecotippingpoints.org. Retrieved on September 17, 2007.

^ Doris Stanley (January 1996), Natural product outdoes malathion - alternative pest control strategy. Retrieved on September 15, 2007.

^ Andrew Leonard, "Monsanto's bane: The evil pigweed", Salon.com, Aug. 27, 2008.

^ Berenbaum M (1994) Bugs in the System. Perseus Books, New York.

^ a b c Marino M. (August 2007), Blowies inspire pesticide attack: Blowfly maggots and dog-wash play starring roles in the story of a remarkable environmental clean-up technology. Solve, Issue 12. CSIRO Enquiries. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.

^ a b Graeme Murphy (December 1 2005), Resistance Management - Pesticide Rotation. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Retrieved on September 15, 2007

^ a b Chris Boerboom (March 2001), Glyphosate resistant weeds. Weed Science - University of Wisconsin. Retrieved on September 15, 2007

External links

IRAC, Insecticide Resistance Action Committee

FRAC, Fungicide Resistance Action Committee

RRAC, Rodenticide Resistance Action Committee

HRAC, Herbicide Resistance Action Committee

UK Resistance Action groups

Arthropod Pesticide Resistance Database

Categories: PesticidesHidden categories: Articles needing more viewpoints | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from September 2007

The Sirens of Titan

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Plot

The protagonist is Malachi Constant, originally of Hollywood, California, and the richest man in 22nd-century America. He possesses extraordinary luck that he attributes to divine favor which he has used to build upon his father's fortune. Aside from this he has done nothing significant with his life, leading a rakish existence. He becomes the centerpoint of a journey that takes him from Earth to Mars in preparation for an interplanetary war, to Mercury with another Martian survivor of that war, back to Earth to be pilloried as a sign of Man's displeasure with his arrogance, and finally to Saturn's moon Titan where he again meets the man ostensibly responsible for the turn of events that have befallen him, Winston Niles Rumfoord.

Rumfoord himself comes from a wealthy New England background. His private fortune was large enough to fund the construction of a personal spacecraft, and he became a space explorer. Traveling between Earth and Mars, his shiparrying Rumfoord and his dog, Kazakntered a phenomenon known as a chrono-synclastic infundibulum, which is defined by Vonnegut as "those places ... where all the different kinds of truths fit together." Vonnegut notes that any detailed description of this phenomenon would baffle the layman, but any comprehensible explanation would insult an expert. Consequently, he "quotes" an article from a (fictional) children's encyclopedia. (Interestingly, much of Vonnegut's information on the Solar system came from a similar source.) According to this article, since the Universe is so large, there are many possible ways to observe it, all of which are equally valid, because people from across the Universe can't communicate with each other (and therefore can't get into an argument). The chrono-synclastic infundibula are places where these "ways to be right" coexist. When they enter the infundibulum, Rumfoord and Kazak become "wave phenomena", somewhat akin to the probability waves encountered in quantum mechanics. They exist along a spiral stretching from the Sun to the star Betelgeuse. When a planet, such as the Earth, intersects their spiral, Rumfoord and Kazak materialize, temporarily, on that planet. flashing christmas lights

When he entered the infundibulum, Rumfoord became aware of the past and future. Throughout the novel, he predicts future events; unless he is deliberately lying, the predictions always come true. ceramic duck

It is in this state that Rumfoord established the "Church of God the Utterly Indifferent" on Earth to unite the planet after a Martian invasion. It is also in this state that Rumfoord, materializing on different planets, instigated the Martian invasion. On Titan, the only place he can exist as a solid human being and not as a broadcast image, Rumfoord befriends an explorer from Tralfamadore (a world that also figures in Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, among several others) who needs a small metal component to repair his damaged spaceship. jingle bell ornaments

Salo, the Tralfamadorian explorer, is actually a robot built many millennia earlier to carry a message from Tralfamadore to a distant galaxy. His spacecraft is powered by the Universal Will to Become, or UWTB, the "prime mover" which makes matter and organization wish to appear out of nothingness. (UWTB, Vonnegut informs the reader, was responsible for the Universe in the first place, and is the greatest imaginable power source.) A small component on Salo's spacecraft breaks, stalling him in the Solar System. He requests help from Tralfamadore, and his fellow Tralfamadorians respond by manipulating human history so that primitive humans evolve and create a civilization in order to produce the replacement part. Stonehenge, the Great Wall of China and the Kremlin are all messages in the Tralfamadorian geometrical language, informing Salo of their progress.

As it turns out, the replacement part is a small metal strip, rounded on one corner, with two holes punched in it. Salo's message, for whose sake the whole of human history was manipulated, is a single dot, which in Tralfamadorian means "greetings".

The metal strip is brought to Salo by Constant and his son Chrono (born of Rumfoord's ex-wife). A sunspot disrupts Rumfoord's spiral, sending him and Kazak separately into the vastness of space. An argument between Rumfoord and Salo moments before, left unresolved because of Rumsfoord's disappearance, leads the distraught Salo to disassemble himself, thereby stranding the humans on Titan. Chrono chooses to live among the Titanian birds; after thirty-two years, his mother dies, and Constant manages to reassemble Salo.

Salo returns Constant to Earth, specifically to the outskirts of Indianapolis, Indiana, where Constant dies. As he dies, he experiences an hallucination secretly implanted in his mind by Salo of a pleasant event, thus giving the novel a somewhat ironic happy ending.

The title is derived from a grouping of statues which Salo sculpts out of "Titanic peat". The statues, eventually submerged in Rumfoord's swimming pool, are in the form of three beautiful women. Constant uses the design in an advertisement for cigarettes, attempting to mitigate their frightening beauty through blatant commercialism.

Religious themes

The novel treats religion by its Marxist description (as an "opiate of the people") that drives its followers to often insane acts. Consider Malachi's banishment from Earth by the Church as a result of Rumfoord's teachings as well as Rumfoord's instigation of the Earth-Mars war leading to the Church's formation.

The author describes how humans not only use religious and ethical systems to manipulate others but also how humans allow themselves to be manipulated by those systems. Consider Rumfoord himself; he can see the past, present, and future but he can't see Salo's message, and he is genuinely hurt by that fact. Salo's ship crashed on Titan in Earth's prehistory, and his people, the Tralfamadorians, have been sending him messages through Earth's great architectural achievements. With Salo now gone to deliver his message, it is possible that humanity will finally make its own destiny, without outside manipulation.

Another major religious theme is Rumfoord's creation of his new religion: "The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent", whose two chief teachings are, "Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God." This religion stresses the importance of God's unwillingness to interfere with the world or human actions. This religion can be compared to the philosophical religion of deism, which also explains that God does not intervene with human affairs or the laws of the universe.

Film rights

Vonnegut sold the film rights to Sirens of Titan to Jerry Garcia, guitarist and vocalist for rock band The Grateful Dead. Garcia began working with Tom Davis in early December 1983 and finished their first draft in January 1985. Garcia commented on the book and the screenplay in a November 1987 interview:

There's really three basic characters that are having things happen to them. Three main characters. [Malachi,] Rumfoord, and Bea. It's like a triangle, a complex, convoluted love story. And it's really that simple....So our task has been to take the essential dramatic relationships, make it playable for actors, so that it's free from the Big Picture emphasis of the book. There's also some extremely lovely, touching moments in the book. It's one of the few Vonnegut books that's really sweet, in parts of it, and it has some really lovely stuff in it. It's the range of it that gets me off.

Garcia died in 1995 before bringing the film to the screen. After waiting a "respectable period of time", Robert B. Weide, who had written and produced the 1996 film adaptation of Mother Night, and had worked on a Vonnegut documentary for years, asked the author about the status of the rights. Vonnegut bought back the rights from Garcia's estate and gave them to Weide on a "verbal handshake" where they remained for years while he attempted to write and find backers for his adaptation. By 2006, Weide reluctantly announced that he had lost the rights. In April 2007, it was announced that screenwriter James V. Hart wrote an adaptation which Vonnegut approved of before he died.

Stage versions

In 1974 Stuart Gordon adapted a version of the novel for the stage with the Organic Theatre Company of Chicago. According to notes on a playbill from 1976 being auctioned on eBay, the 1976 production featured actors Joe Mantegna and Dennis Franz. The play was also performed in 1977 at UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley.

Audiobook

In 2009, Audible.com produced an audio version of The Sirens of Titan, narrated by Jay Snyder, as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks.

In popular culture

Scottish singer-songwriter Al Stewart paid homage to the novel with the same titled song on his 1975 album Modern Times, featuring the lyric "I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all..." as the chorus.

In a 1979 interview released in 2007, Douglas Adams discussed Vonnegut as an influence on The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:

"Sirens of Titan is just one of those books you read it through the first time and you think it's very loosely, casually written. You think the fact that everything suddenly makes such good sense at the end is almost accidental. And then you read it a few more times, simultaneously finding out more about writing yourself, and you realize what an absolute tour de force it was, making something as beautifully honed as that appear so casual."

In issue 32 of Y: The Last Man, a 21st century comic book series, a ship captain names her vessel after the ship from The Sirens of Titan.

Utah Phillips, an American folk singer, mentions 'chrono-synclastic infundibulum' in at least two of his spoken word pieces.

Moondragon, an earth woman trained on Titan, uses the title as an exclamation in Defenders #77.

References

This section needs additional citations for verification.

Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2009)

^ Cargas, Harry James (1976). Transcript: Interview in Christian Century. Verified 10 May 2005. Vonnegut speaks on humor, technology, the Great Depression, and other assorted topics.

^ Davis, Tom (2009). "Hepburn Heights, The Den of Equity". Thirty-nine Years of Short-term Memory Loss. Grove Press. p. 249. ISBN 978-0-8021-1880-6. "Kurt Vonnegut's novel, The Sirens of Titan, was both Jerry Garcia's and my favorite book and he had recently purchased the film rights....It was early December of 1983." 

^ Davis, Tom (2009). "Hepburn Heights, The Den of Equity". Thirty-nine Years of Short-term Memory Loss. Grove Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-8021-1880-6. 

^ Eisenhart, Mary (November 12, 1987). Transcript: Jerry Garcia Interview. Verified 30 March 2005. Jerry Garcia discusses Sirens of Titan at length

^ a b Weide, Robert B. (January, 2001). Sirens of Titan. Verified 30 March 2005.

^ Adler, Shawn (April 13, 2007).Kurt Vonnegut's 'Sirens Of Titan' Being Adapted For Big Screen Verified 15 April 2007.

^ Shircore, Ian (1979). Transcript: Douglas Adams Interview. Douglas Adams discusses his early work

v  d  e

Works by Kurt Vonnegut

Novels

Player Piano (1952)  The Sirens of Titan (1959)  Mother Night (1961)  Cat's Cradle (1963)  God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965)  Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)  Breakfast of Champions (1973)  Slapstick (1976)  Jailbird (1979)  Deadeye Dick (1982)  Galpagos (1985)  Bluebeard (1987)  Hocus Pocus (1990)  Timequake (1997)

Story collections

Canary in a Cathouse (1961)  Welcome to the Monkey House (1968)  Bagombo Snuff Box (1999)

Collected essays

Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974)  Palm Sunday (1981)  Fates Worse than Death (1990)  God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999)  A Man Without a Country (2005)

Scripts

Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970)  Between Time and Timbuktu (1972)  Make Up Your Mind (1993)  Miss Temptation (1993)  L'Histoire du Soldat (1993)

Posthumous

collections

Armageddon in Retrospect (2008)  Look at the Birdie (2009)

Adaptations

Stage

Welcome to the Monkey House (1970, 1974)  Sirens of Titan (1974)  Cat's Cradle (1976)  God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1979)  Breakfast of Champions (1984)  Requiem (Stone, Time, and Elements: A Humanist Requiem) (1988)  Slaughterhouse-Five (1996)

Film

Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971)  Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)  Next Door (1975)  Slapstick of Another Kind (1982)  Harrison Bergeron (1995)  Mother Night (1996)  Breakfast of Champions (1999)  2081 (2009)

Television

Displaced Person (1958, 1985)  Between Time and Timbuktu (1972)  EPICAC (1974, 1992)  Who Am I This Time? (1982)  All the King's Horses (1991)  Next Door (1991)  The Euphio Question (1991)  Fortitude (1992)  The Foster Portfolio (1992)  More Stately Mansions (1992)  Harrison Bergeron (1995)

Categories: Novels by Kurt Vonnegut | 1959 novels | Comic science fiction | Postmodern literature | Religious themed fiction | Science fiction novels | Titan in fictionHidden categories: Articles needing additional references from March 2009 | All articles needing additional references

Vacuum flask

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Theory of operation

A practical vacuum flask is a bottle made of metal, glass, or plastic with hollow walls; the narrow region between the inner and outer wall is evacuated of air. It can also be considered to be two thin-walled bottles nested one inside the other and sealed together at their necks. Using vacuum as an insulator avoids heat transfer by conduction or convection. Radiative heat loss can be minimized by applying a reflective coating to surfaces: Dewar used silver. The contents of the flask reach thermal equilibrium with the inner wall; the wall is thin, with low thermal capacity, so does not exchange much heat with the contents, affecting their temperature little. At the temperatures for which vacuum flasks are used (usually below the boiling point of water), and with the use of reflective coatings, there is little infrared (radiative) transfer.

The flask must, in practice, have an opening for contents to be added and removed. A vacuum cannot be maintained at the opening; therefore, a stopper made of insulating material must be used, originally cork, later plastics. Inevitably, most heat loss takes place through this stopper. bamboo salad bowl

Purpose and uses melamine ware

Food and drink stoneware dinner plates

Vacuum flasks are used to maintain their contents (often but not always liquid) at a temperature higher or lower than ambient temperature, while retaining the ambient pressure of approximately 1 Atmosphere (14.7 Psi). Domestically and in the food industry, they are often used to keep food and drink either cold or hot. A typical domestic vacuum flask will keep liquid cool for about 24 hours, and warm for up to 8.

Laboratory and industry

In laboratories and industry, vacuum flasks are often used to store liquids which become gaseous at well below ambient temperature, such as oxygen and nitrogen; in this case, the leakage of heat into the extremely cold interior of the bottle results in a slow "boiling-off" of the liquid so that a narrow unstoppered opening, or a stoppered opening protected by a pressure relief valve, is necessary to prevent pressure from building up and shattering the flask. The excellent insulation of the Dewar flask results in a very slow "boil", and thus the contents remain liquid for a long time without the need for expensive refrigeration equipment.

Modifications

Several applications rely on the use of double Dewar flasks, such as NMR and MRI machines. These flasks have two vacuum sections. The flasks contain liquid helium in the inside flask and liquid nitrogen in the outer flask, with one vacuum section in between. The loss of expensive helium is limited in this way.

Other improvements to the Dewar flask include the vapor-cooled radiation shield and the vapor-cooled neck, which both help to reduce evaporation from the flask.

Gallery

Sketch of vacuum flask, from a U.S. patent, 1907

A large stainless steel Dewar flask of liquid nitrogen, used to supply a cryogenic freezer (for storing laboratory samples at about -197C).

References

^ http://www.cryogenicsociety.org/resources/cryo_central/history_of_cryogenics/

Further reading

Burger, R., U.S. Patent 872,795, "Double walled vessel with a space for a vacuum between the walls", December 3, 1907.

Sella, Andrea (August 2008). "Dewar's Flask". Chemistry World: 75. http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2008/August/DewarsFlask.asp. Retrieved 2008-08-30. 

Categories: Containers | Scottish inventions | Cryogenics | Vacuum | 1892 introductions

Universal remote

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History

On 30 May 1985, Philips, through Magnavox, introduced the first universal remote (U.S. Pat. #4774511).[citation needed]

In 1985, William "Russ" McIntyre, a software engineer with North American Philips Consumer Electronics (Magnavox, Sylvania, and Philco) developed the first universal remote control along with two colleagues[who?]. Shortly after development was completed[when?] and patent applications filed[which?][when?], Magnavox initiated the "Smart, Very Smart" campaign, coining the 'smart' axiom. McIntyre has claimed that the primary design challenge was fitting the well-crafted, tight code into an extremely limited memory space.[citation needed] There are at least 2 subsequent patents which follow: US Pat. 4703359, on November 20, 1988 and US Pat. 4951131, in 1989.[citation needed] tissue jumbo roll

In 1987, the first programmable universal remote control was released. It was created by CL 9, a startup founded by Steve Wozniak, the inventor of the Apple II.[citation needed] jumbo roll tissue

In March 1987, Steve Ciarcia published an article in Byte Magazine entitled 'Build a Trainable Infrared Master Controller', which described a universal remote with the ability to upload the settings to a computer. This device had macro capabilities. novelty toilet paper

Layout and features

Most universal remotes share a number of basic design elements:

A power button, as well as a switch or series of buttons to select which device the remote is controlling at the moment. A typical selection includes TV, VCR, DVD, and CBL/SAT, along with other devices that sometimes include DVRs, audio equipment or home automation devices.

Channel and volume up/down selectors (sometimes marked with + and - signs).

A numeric keypad for entering channel numbers and some other purposes such as time and date entry.

A set button (sometimes recessed to avoid accidental pressing) to allow selection of a particular set of codes (usually entered on the keypad). Most remotes also allow the user to cycle through the list of available codes to find one that matches the device to be controlled.

Most but not all universal remotes include one or more D-pads for navigating menus on DVD players and cable/satellite boxes.

Certain highly reduced designs such as the TV-B-Gone or keychain-sized remotes include only a few buttons, such as power and channel/volume selectors.

Higher-end remotes have numerous other features:

Macro programming, allowing the user to program command sequences to be sent with one button press

LCD to display status information.

Programmable soft keys, allowing user-defined functions and macros

Aliases or "punchthroughs", which allow multiple devices to be accessed without changing device modes (for example, using the TV's volume control while the remote is still in DVD-player mode.)

IR code learning, allowing the remote to be programmed to control new devices not already in its code list

PC configuration, allowing the remote to be connected to a computer for easy setup

Some universal remotes have the ability to also make phone calls replacing your home phone in that room.

Repeaters are available that can extend the range of a remote control; some remotes are designed to communicate with a dedicated repeater over RF, removing the line-of-sight requirement of IR repeaters, while others accept infrared signals from any remote and transmit them to the device being controlled. (The latter are sometimes built as hobby projects and are widely available in kit form.)

Some devices, such as some computers and game consoles, use Bluetooth or a similar RF protocol rather than infrared as the main transmission form; universal remotes compatible with those designs are available.[specify]

Upgradable and learning remotes

Some universal remotes allow the code lists programmed into the remote to be updated to support new brands or models of devices not currently supported by the remote. Some higher end universal learning remotes require a computer to be connected. The connection is typically done via USB from the computer to mini-USB on the remote or the remotes base station.

A group of hackers discovered that universal remotes made by UEI and sold under the One For All, RadioShack, and other brands can be reprogrammed by means of an interface called JP1.

IR learning remotes can learn the code for any button on many other IR remote controls. This functionality allows the remote to learn functions not supported by default for a particular device, making it sometimes possible to control devices that the remote was not originally designed to control. A drawback of this approach is that the learning remote needs a functioning teaching remote. Also, some entertainment equipment manufacturers use pulse frequencies that are higher than what the learning remote can detect and store in its memory.

Touch-screen remotes

These remotes feature an LCD screen that can be either monochrome or full color. The 'buttons' are actually images on the screen which, when touched, will send IR signals out to control devices. Some models have multiple screens that are accessed through buttons on the touch-screen and other models have a combination of the touch-screen and "hard" (traditional) buttons.

Some models of the touch-screen remotes are programmed using a graphical interface program on a PC, which allows the user to customize the screens, backgrounds, buttons and even the 'actions' the buttons perform. The 'project' that is created is then downloaded into the remote through a USB cable or, in the most recent models, wirelessly by Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

The very newest touch-screen remotes include an RF transmitter to allow signals to reach locations much farther than the usual range (approximately 20' ) of IR.

See also

TV-B-Gone

References

^ a b Ciarcia, Steve (1987-03). Build a Trainable Infrared Master Controller. Byte Magazine, Volume 12, Issue 3 (March 1987), pp 113 - 123. Retrieved citation from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=25992.

^ US patent 4959810

Categories: Assistive technology | Consumer electronics | Television technologyHidden categories: Articles needing additional references from January 2008 | All articles needing additional references | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from September 2009 | All articles with specifically-marked weasel-worded phrases | Articles with specifically-marked weasel-worded phrases from September 2009 | Vague or ambiguous time | Articles needing more detailed references

Starrett City, Brooklyn

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Spring Creek Towers Public Safety

Starrett City's Spring Creek Towers Department of Public Safety has been used as a case study in the advantages of private security over public policy. Donovan and Walsh note, "Statistically, Starrett City must be considered one of the safest communities in the United States."

The Spring Creek Towers Department of Public Safety employs armed peace officers to preserve the life and property of the residents of the complex. Officers enforce New York State Laws as well as New York City laws. Starrett City is patrolled by Public Safety Officers 24 hours a day on foot, bikes, or in vehicles. The department also has specialized units modeled after the New York City Police Department. Serious crime is generally handled by the NYPD. residential rubber flooring

Demographics ceramic pool tile

As of the 2000 U.S. Census, there were 14,620 people living in Starett City. The demographics of Starett City were 44.7% African American, 38.0% White, 18.4% Hispanic or Latino and 4.1% Asian. As of 1999, the median family income was $68,525. porcelain mosaic tile

Sale

2007 Sale Offering

Starrett City, apartment houses, Brooklyn

On November 30, 2006, Starrett City Associates, the owner of the complex, announced an offering to sell the entire property, raising fears that a new owner will raise rents and squeeze out current tenants. CB Richard Ellis, which brokered the Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town deal earlier in 2006, served as the listing agent.

Upon finding out about the sale, tenants at Starrett City began organizing in response to the sale of their homes. The state's largest tenants rights group, Tenants and Neighbors, met with Starrett tenants to inform them of their rights and options. The Starrett City tenants also partnered with the community activist organization ACORN to form Save Starrett City.

On February 8, 2007, at 3AM, Starrett City Associates agreed to sell the sprawling complex to Clipper Equity LLC for a staggering $1.3 billion. Although the buyers insisted the complex will remain affordable, housing advocates were concerned that the high price will require rent increases and service cuts. New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed doubt about Clipper Equities intentions and contrasted the sale to the similar Stuyvesant Town sale. Bloomberg called Tishman Speyer, the purchaser of Stuyvesant Town, a reputable landlord, compared to Clipper Equities. "There are questions about this landlord and some of the plans that they have to build other things there," he said. Similarly, Congressmen Anthony Weiner and Edolphus Towns expressed concern about the sale and indicated that federal hearings may be held into the matter. Senator Charles Schumer went even further and "vowed ... that he would not allow the deal to go through without an ironclad agreement from any buyer that Starrett stays affordable."

In response to HUD's rejection of the deal, Clipper Equity proposed a new bid aimed at appeasing its critics. Clipper's new bid claims that it can "trim operating expenses by installing new heating and cooling systems, lowering management fees and improving overall efficiencies," and thus keep housing affordable. The bid further raises the possibility of turning some 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m2) of undeveloped land on the property into "new housing for the senior residents, a retirement facility for members of the city labor unions and small-scale retail, with a designated area for local entrepreneurs." Clipper Equity has taken other steps to garner support, including receiving informal backing from influential ministers Rev. Calvin O. Butts and Rev. A.R. Bernard.

On April 7, 2007, the New York State Department of Housing and Community Renewal Commissioner Deborah Van Amerongen rejected Clipper Equity's second proposal. She stated that Clipper's plan for rents to reach market rate after three years failed to adequately protect residents and would require increased government subsidies to keep housing there affordable. Nevertheless, Clipper Equity made another attempt in August 2007.

2008 Sale Offering

In June 2008, Starrett City Associates reached an agreement with Federal, State and City officials on a sale process which would ensure that the property remains affordable. This agreement was further buttressed by federal legislation, which made preserving the property as affordable housing easier for a new buyer.

Schools

Abe Stark Elementary School, (P.S.346)

Gateway Intermediate School, (I.S. 364) Frederick Douglas Academy VIII (4th Floor of P.S. 346)

The nearest high schools, Canarsie High School and South Shore High School are located in Canarsie.

References

^ Close-Up on Starrett City, Brooklyn, The Village Voice, April 6, 2005

^ [http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/precincts/precinct_075.shtml NYPD 75 Precinct

^ With Starrett City Deal Nearly Dead, Developer Tries Again

^ Starrett Police Force

^ Spring Creek Sun

^ Donovan, Edwin J., and William F. Walsh (1986), An Evaluation of Starrett City Security Services, Pennsylvania State University, pp. 36 

^ [Starrett City Security]

^ Starrett City owners eye Stuy-high offers, New York Daily News, December 1, 2006

^ Agent says auction for residential complex. Shanghai Daily, December 4, 2006

^ Apartment Complex in Brooklyn Sold for $1.3 Billion

^ Mayor wary of new Starrett owners, The Real Deal, February 9, 2007

^ Congressmen Call For Hearings Into Starrett City Sale, NY1, Feb. 11, 2007

^ Keep It Affordable or Else, The New York Observer, Feb. 12, 2007

^ Starrett City bidder readies new proposal, Crain's New York Business, Mar. 9, 2007

^ Aspiring Buyer of Starrett City Is Back Onstage, New York Times, Apr. 6, 2007

^ NY state housing chief rejects new Starrett City bid, Associated Press, Apr. 8, 2007

^ With Starrett City Near Dead Developer Tries Again, The New York Times, Aug. 3, 2007

^ In New Sale Starrett City Would Stay Affordable, New York Times, June 2, 2008

External links

TheDeal: Financial crisis tempers bids for Starrett City

Starrett City in Pictures

Timeline of Starrett City Auction

v  d  e

Neighborhoods in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn

Admiral's Row  ATURA  Barren Island  Bath Beach  Bay Ridge  Bedford  Bedford-Stuyvesant  Bensonhurst  Bergen Beach  BoCoCa  Boerum Hill  Borough Park  Brighton Beach  Brooklyn Heights  Brownsville  Bushwick  Cadman Plaza  Canarsie  Carroll Gardens  City Line  Clinton Hill  Cobble Hill  Coney Island  Crown Heights  Cypress Hills  Ditmas Park  Downtown  DUMBO  Dyker Heights  East Flatbush  East New York  East Williamsburg  Farragut  Fiske Terrace  Flatbush  Flatlands  Fort Greene  Fort Hamilton  Fulton Ferry  Georgetown  Gerritsen Beach  Gowanus  Gravesend  Greenpoint  Greenwood Heights  Highland Park  Homecrest  Kensington  Little Poland  Madison  Manhattan Beach  Marine Park  Midwood  Mill Basin  Navy Yard  New Lots  New Utrecht  Ocean Hill  Ocean Parkway  Park Slope  Pigtown  Plum Beach  Prospect Heights  Prospect-Lefferts Gardens  Prospect Park South  RAMBO  Red Hook  Sea Gate  Sheepshead Bay  South Brooklyn  South Park Slope  Starrett City  Stuyvesant Heights  Sunset Park  Vinegar Hill  Weeksville  White Sands  Williamsburg  Windsor Terrace  Wingate

Community Boards: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18

Categories: Neighborhoods in BrooklynHidden categories: New York City articles missing geocoordinate data | All articles needing coordinates

Willamette Industries

China Product


History

Willamette Industries was founded in Dallas, Oregon, in 1906 as the Willamette Valley Lumber Company. Louis Gerlinger, Sr. was president of the new company and H.L. Pittock, vice president. George T. Gerlinger served as secretary and manager while F.W. Leadbetter was treasurer. George Cone served as director and mill superintendent.

In 1967, this company and several others merged to become Willamette Industries. The next year the company went public. The company continued to grow through acqusistions, including purchasing Bohemia, Inc. in 1991, which at the time was one of the largest lumber companies in Oregon. By 1999 it had grown to 14,000 employees with $4 billion in annual revenues and more than 100 facilities across the United States. coiled tube

Products stainless seamless pipe

Willamette had three operating divisions. A brown paper division produced bag paper, paper bags, cardboard, and liner board. The white paper segment made hardwood market pulp, business forms, and uncoated free sheets. The building materials unit manufactured lumber, plywood, fiberboard, particleboard, and laminated veneer lumber products. Customers were located in the US, Asia, and Europe. 316 stainless steel tube

Environment

In July 2000, the company was fined a then record $11.2 million by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for violations of the Clean Air Act. As part of a settlement with the EPA and the Department of Justice, Willamette also was required to spend an additional $74 million on pollution abatement at 13 factories. In May 2001, the company donated habitat to The Nature Conservancy in the form of permanent conservation easements. The total amount of land 1,740 acres (7.0 km) with a value of $1.5 million.

Buyout

Beginning in 1998 Washington-based competitor Weyerhaeuser contacted Willamette Industries about combining the companies. At that time Willamette management did not entertain any of these proposals. On November 13, 2000, Weyerhaeuser began an unsolicited bid to purchase Willamette through a tender offer, for $5.3 billion in cash, plus the assumption of $1.7 billion in debt, or $48.00 a share, a 38% premium to Willamette's Friday, November 11, closing stock price. The shares in Willamette went up 32.7% on Monday, November 13.

Willamette fought this hostile take-over bid. On November 29 Weyerhaeuser upped the price to $48 a share, or $5.4 billion. Willamette rejected this offer also. On December 22, 2000, Weyerhaeuser announced that it had launched a proxy fight to oust four directors of Willamette Industries, in order to get the board to vote in its favor. The offer was extended on January 5, 2001 to February 1, and on February 1, 2001, Weyerhaeuser learned that a majority of the shareholders favored the merger, with 51% of shares outstanding tendered. Weyerhaeuser secured three of the four board seats in the proxy fight in June 2001. In October 2001, Willamette said that it was worth more: "value is in the $60-a-share range, but that they would consider an offer in the high-$50 range." Willamette sought out merger talks with another forest products company, Georgia-Pacific, the largest in the world to avoid the Weyerhaeuser takeover. Willamette even talked with Georgia-Pacific about Willamette buying the GP building materials businesses and greatly increasing Willamette's debt level. The combination with the G-P that was larger than all of Willamette's operations would have created a company with annual sales of around $12.5 billion. On December 13, 2001, Weyerhaeuser increased its offer to $55.00 per share, or $6.5 billion, in cash.

Finally, in January 2002, Willamette Industries agreed to be bought by Weyerhaeuser for $55.50 per share, for a total cash equity value of approximately $6.08 billion. The deal also included Weyerhaeuser's assumption of approximately $1.53 billion of Willamette debt, making the total value of the deal approximately $7.61 billion. The deal closed in March of that year, ending a four-year process.

Company at buyout

At the time of the takeover by Weyerhaeuser, Willamette was the seventh largest forest products company in world with over 90 facilities across the United States. There were foreign operations in Mexico, Ireland, and France. Willamette Industries owned 1.7 million acres (6,900 km) of forest land, and Duane C. McDougall served as the last chief executive officer of the company. As of June 15, 2001 the company had $4.6 billion in annual revenues and a market value of $5.35 billion.

References

^ WIPO Domain Name Decision. WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

^ Willamette Industries Inc 8-K For 3/14/96 EX-99. SECinfo.com. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

^ a b c d Willamette Industries Donates Critical Habitats to The Nature Conservancy. The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

^ a b Manning, Jeff. The past Willamette Industries charges ahead. The Oregonian, June 25, 2000.

^ Catherine A. Baldwin (1982). Making the Most of the Best: Willamette Industries' Seventy-Five Years. (Portland, OR: Willamette Industries, 172 p.).

^ a b Willamette Industries SEC 10K for 1999. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

^ Tallmadge, Alice (January 4, 2005). "'Stub' Stewart, timber baron, lawmaker, dies at 93". The Oregonian: p. B1. 

^ a b c d e Willamette Industries - WLL- Profile. Business.com. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

^ a b Frieden, Terry. Willamette Industries settles pollution claims with $11.2 million fine. CNN.com, July 21, 2000. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

^ BusinessWire: Weyerhaeuser Sends Letter to Willamette Regarding Potential Synergies

^ Weyerhaeuser filing. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

^ Deogun, Nikhil, and Jim Carlton. "Weyerhaeuser Seeks Rival Willamette In an Unsolicited Offer of $5.3 Billion". Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2000.

^ Oregon's downturn: State battered by slump in manufacturing. The Seattle Times.

^ Deogun, Nikhil. "Willamette Industries Rejects Weyerhaeuser's $5.3 Billion Bid". Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2000.

^ Deogun, Nikhil. "Weyerhaeuser Makes Hostile Cash Bid Of $5.4 Billion for Willamette Industries". Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2000.

^ News Roundup: "Willamette Urges Shareholders to Reject Weyerhaeuser's $5.4 Billion Tender Offer". Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2000.

^ Business Brief: "Weyerhaeuser Co.: Proxy Fight May Push Out Four Willamette Directors". Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2000.

^ News Roundup: "Weyerhaeuser Extends Hostile Offer For Willamette Industries to Feb. 1". Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2001.

^ Business Brief: "Weyerhaeuser Bid For Rival Willamette Receives a Boost". Wall Street Journal, February 2, 2001.

^ "Weyerhaeuser a winner?" CNN: Money Magazine, June 7, 2001.

^ "Willamette sets deadline". CNN: Money Magazine, October 11, 2001.

^ Willamette Reaches Agreement in Principal (sic) for Sale to Weyerhaeuser For $55.50 Per Share in Cash. PR Newswire Association. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

^ a b "Willamette disappoints Weyerhaeuser" CNN: Money Magazine, January 4, 2002.

^ Rivera, Dylan. To buy or not to buy. The Oregonian, January 20, 2002.

^ a b Rivera, Dylan. Weyerhaeuser will acquire Willamette. The Oregonian, January 22, 2002.

^ Weyerhaeuser Welcomes Oregon Willamette Employees as Companies Combine to grow Global Leader. PR Newswire Association. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

^ a b McIntosh, Don. Willamette Industries workers protest Weyerhaeuser invasion. NW Labor Press, June 15, 2001.

^ EPA seeks $10 million in fines against Willamette Industries. Times.org. Retrieved April 19, 2007.

^ Associated Press. Former Willamette Industries executive promise $1M to OSU. KGW.com, September 22, 2006. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

^ Parish, Bill. Enron Lessons for Weyerhaeuser, Willamette Industries, the SEC and Arthur Andersen. Parish & Company. January 24, 2002. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

Further reading

Baldwin, Cathrine A. Making the Most of the Best: Willamette Industries' Seventy-Five Years. Portland, Oregon: Willamette Industries. 1982. OCLC 8734832

Dunn, Cathrine Baldwin. Making the Most of the Best: A History of Willamette Industries, Inc.. Portland, Oregon: Willamette Industries. 1994. OCLC 43799999

Swindells, William., and Catherine Baldwin Dunn. The Rest of the Best: Willamette Industries, Inc. 1994-2002. Portland, Oregon: Willamette Industries. 2002. OCLC 51027663

External links

Willamette Industries in the Oregon Encyclopedia.

PRnewswire.com: Willamette Industries, Inc.

AllBusiness: Weyerhaeuser, Willamette to be one.

Nintendo Misses Out On Wii.com

Willamette Industries final SEC annual report

Willamette Industries, Inc., Company History

v  d  e

Modern history of Oregon (1890resent)

Topics

Tax revolt  Governors  Bottle Bill  Centennial Tokens  Roll on Columbia  Meier & Frank  Willamette Industries  Direct Legislation League

Events

USS Oregon  Lewis & Clark Expo  Oregon land fraud scandal  Lookout Air Raid  Columbus Day Storm  Exploding whale  1977 NBA Finals  1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens  Rajneeshee bioterror attack  Rajneeshee assassination plot  New Carissa

Places

Vanport  Bonneville Dam  Shanghai tunnels  Kaiser Shipyards  Fort Stevens  Celilo Falls  Copperfield  Harbor Drive

People

Terry Baker  George Chamberlain  James A. Fee  David B. Frohnmayer  Neil Goldschmidt  Matt Groening  Mark Hatfield  Nan Wood Honeyman  Ken Kesey  Phil Knight  Hall S. Lusk  Tom McCall  Douglas McKay  Charles McNary  Wayne Morse  Maurine Brown Neuberger  Norma Paulus  Steve Prefontaine  Jack Ramsay  Barbara Roberts  James H. Weaver

History of Oregon's native peoples  of Oregon to 1806  of pioneers in Oregon  of Oregon in modern times

v  d  e

Companies formerly based in Oregon

Moved out of state

Georgia Pacific  Louisiana Pacific

Acquired by out-of-state entities

Tektronix (2007)  Freightliner  Fred Meyer  U.S. Bancorp  Hollywood Video  Willamette Industries (2002)  Oregon Steel Mills  Meier & Frank  Sequent Computer Systems

Defunct or out of business

Consolidated Freightways  Floating Point Systems  Joe's  Troutman's Emporium

Categories: Companies established in 1906 | Companies disestablished in 2002 | Defunct companies based in Oregon | Companies based in Portland, Oregon | Weyerhaeuser | Forest products companies | Defunct pulp and paper companies

Running Fence

China Product


christojeanneclaude.net/rf.shtml. Retrieved 2008-01-31. 

^ "Christo and Jeanne-Claude". http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2002/christo/fence.shtm. Retrieved 2008-01-31. 

^ "Running Fence (1978)". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0220741/. Retrieved 2008-01-31.  teak furniture care

^ ""Watson School Historic Park"". http://www.sonoma-county.org/parks/pk_watsn.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-31.  liquid toilet cleaner

^ "Over The River". http://www.overtheriverinfo.com/page_24. Retrieved 2009-01-18.  laundry liquid soap

See also

List of Sonoma County Regional Parks facilities

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

This decorative art-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

v  d  e

Categories: 1976 works | History of Sonoma County, California | History of the San Francisco Bay Area | Installation art | Marin County, California | Parks in Sonoma County, California | West Marin | Decorative arts stubsHidden categories: California articles missing geocoordinate data | All articles needing coordinates

Motorola FONE F3

China Product


Display technology

The F3 is the first mobile phone to use electronic paper in its screen. Motorola uses the term ClearVision to describe the new display, which is manufactured using E Ink's electrophoretic imaging film. The electronic paper main display allows for the phone's thinness (no glass), longer battery life, and outdoor viewability (paper-like reflectivity). It has a backlight for the keypad and a slit that projects the backlight onto the screen so the display can be seen in darkness.

The characteristics of the display are fairly restrictive. The text display contains only two lines of six characters each, making the use of text messaging (SMS) and data services less practical than on standard LCD displays. The display uses a fixed 'digital clock' style font, with no functionality for changing between upper case and lower case text. All SMSs sent by the F3 are received entirely in lower case, and each character of any SMS received by the F3 is displayed in whichever case makes the most sense using the font. Also, the non-alphabetic characters are severely limited due to this display, as the phone can only provide support for the following characters: acrylic business card holders

Comma (,) (periods . in incoming text messages are displayed as commas) acrylic business card holder

Hyphen (-) business card holders acrylic

Question mark (?)

At-sign (@)

Asterisk (*)

(+), to write this character, hold down the 0 key

No other non-alphanumeric characters can be entered, and on receiving an SMS any non-alphabetic character not listed above is displayed as a hyphen.

Although the display can be restrictive when it comes to text applications, the display is very energy efficient and conducive to extremely long battery life.

User interface

Since the F3 has only two lines of fixed icons on the top and bottom of the display, as well as one line of six 14-segment characters and another line of six 7-segment numbers available on its display, the user interface is very different from the usual menu structure normally found on mobile phones. The only thing resembling a (flat) menu is accessed by pressing left/right on the central button: It allows writing an SMS, reading a saved SMS, call history, choosing the ringtone (out of seven melodies), setting date and time, and setting the alarm clock. The menu is visualized by fixed icons in the bottom row, following the left/right pattern of the navigation button.

The F3 has a few dedicated buttons for opening the address book (top right), canceling any action (the red button), dialing the currently displayed number (the green button) and an "action" button (top left). A few more functions are available by shortcuts: When making a call, pressing the action button twice switches the loudspeaker on/off, while pressing up/down controls the speaker volume. The same button used in standby toggles voice prompts, while pressing up/down controls ringtone volume. When the phone rings, due to incoming calls, the ringer can also be silenced by pressing up/down. All activated features (set alarm clock, activated vibration mode, roaming, ...) are indicated by simple icons in fixed positions in the top row, every successful action is acknowledged by an "OK" icon flashing on and off a few times. The only context-sensitive button is the action button which is used for "OK" on options as well as choosing a number or address book entry when writing an SMS or for answering a received SMS.

Reception strength (left) and battery status (right) are constantly displayed in two prominent strips above the actual display. Both are readable in any light condition and from considerable distances.

Special features

The F3 Motofone is designed for usage in developing countries and sports not only a display which copes well with both bright sunlight and very dim light (experience shows it is readable by candlelight even without the backlight) but also voice prompts explaining the current function in a choice of languages (depending on region; a unit bought in Germany offers German, English and Italian). It is also fairly solid and rugged and should survive not only rough handling but also very dusty and/or damp conditions well, as the case has only two openings (a charger/headset jack and the battery cover) as well as a totally sealed keyboard. There are even videos on the Internet showing the F3 being thrown from a 3 story building into tarmac, and being run over by a car on a gravel surface. The phone survived intact.

The charger/headset jack for the F3 Motofone (and variants) is not a standard 2.5 mm or 3.5 mm headset port. It is a DC connector that can support mono sound quality. This is not well-documented at Motorola and internal documentation indicates the jack is a standard 2.5 mm TRS connector jack. The jack shown on the Motorola site clearly has a pin in the center of the jack, prohibiting use of a standard 2.5 mm plug. A mono headset is available as part number CFLN6103AA and the name of it is Motorola S215 Pedestrian Kit. This is a headset only and not an adapter.

The F3 has two internal antennas to maximize reception even when partially shielded by a hand or other obstacles and a loud maximum volume for ringtones and loudspeaker to facilitate usage in crowded city environments or public transport. The unique default ringing mode is vibrating silently for some seconds, then ring in modest volume, then ring with full volume (one can also set a vibrate-only mode or modes with fixed volume). To ease repairs or recycling, it can be opened by four Torx screws on the back.

Variants

The Motorola Motofone comes in two two-band variants: The F3 900/1800 MHz GSM for Europe and much of the rest of the world except the Americas; and the F3 u2 850/1900 MHz GSM for North America and a limited number of Central and South American countries. See GSM frequency bands for specific country coverage.

Both variants come in four different colors: black, blue, red and a silverish grey.

According to its very low price (starting from 20 to 30 /$) the F3/F3c is mainly sold with prepaid (pay-as-you-go) SIM cards and it seems that the sellers often (but not always) implement a SIM-lock. However, for slightly more (starting at ca. 30) it can also be bought without SIM-lock or card, giving full freedom to choose any provider.

In Brazil, this phone (without SIM-lock) is sold for BRL 99.00 as of February 2008 (approx. USD 57.00). The SIM-locked version can be purchased for BRL 29.00 (on telephone carrier stores). The F3 is currently Brazil's cheapest cellphone.

In Hungary it could be purchased in Dec/2007 for a total of HUF 2000 (approx. USD 11.58 (~7.87) at that time), with the price already including a prepaid card from T-Mobile with a balance of HUF 600 (approx. USD 3.46 (~2.35) at that time). Prices for mobile-phones in Hungary usually are higher than in other industrial nations.

In the UK, this phone is being sold by Home Bargains (as of 29/04/2008) and -Stretcher (as of 07/06/2008) with a Virgin Mobile SIM (T-Mobile network) for 7.99 (6.99 -Stretcher). The phones do not seem to have any sort of SIM network lock and have been successfully used with Orange, Vodafone and O2.

In Canada and the US, this phone is not available through Motorola's normal retail channels. Where available, the North American version is normally sold unlocked, with no SIM card.

In Mexico, this phone is available virtually everywhere, from specialized stores to simple supermarkets, it sells both refurbished and new, for a very low price; this phone is currently the cheapest in Mexico's Market. It is only offered in Prepaid form and most of the time with SIM Lock.

Although this phone is being manufactured largely in India, it has recently become completely unavailable in major metropolitan areas such as Chennai or Madras. It seems that Motorola is in fact actively phasing out the model in India due to poor sales perhaps because of the popularity of text messaging in India, which is arguably oversimplified on the F3.

Advanced Settings

To access the advanced settings, press * * * [number code] * [action] ([action] is the key in the upper left corner of the keypad, the one printed with an upward-pointing arrow in a circle)

Documented codes

Phone Setting

Number Code

Reset Factory settings

000

Restricted Calling (Phonebook only) ON / OFF

160/161

Keypad tones ON / OFF

250/251

Auto keypad lock ON / OFF

260/261

Set SIM Pin

300

SIM Pin ON / OFF

310/311

Select time format

470

Prepaid Balance Display ON / OFF

500/501

Voice Prompts ON / OFF (1)

510/511

Change Language

520

Set Balance Inquiry Number to use when the # key is pressed and held

642

Set Voicemail number

644

(1) can also be toggled by pressing [action] on the volume menu

Undocumented codes

Phone Setting

Number Code

Display total time of accepted incoming calls

111

Display total time of outgoing calls

121

Switch Audible call minute counter (beep) ON/OFF

130/131

Region Code display ON/OFF

400/401

List available networks with option to change to another network

402

Display network currently receiving service from

480

Display list of networks within range

481

View / Edit Service Cell Number (SMS Service)

643

Delete ALL stored messages

700

Enter SMS prepay query code (?)

701

The following codes work AS IS, i.e. without entering the * around them

Phone information details

* * 9 9 9 9 * [action]

Cell phone serial number

* # 0 6 # (scroll down for complete number)

References

^ The Motofone is One Tough Phone!

^ Detailed image of charger/headset port

Motorola. "MOTOFONE Makes its Global Debut Introducing Stylish Connectivity for Everyone". Press release, November 28, 2006.

Pradhan, Priyanka (November 29, 2006). "Motorola's Motofone F3 Launched". tech2.com. http://www.tech2.com/india/news/value-mobile-phones/motorolas-motofone-f3-launched/3061/0. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Motorola FONE F3

Motorola Motofone

Motorola Motofone F3c

Review: Motorola Motofone F3

Hands-on review

Live Pics with short review

Review by The Register

Motorola Motofone F3 Dissassembly

Pin layout of the data connector

Bicycle-mounted dynamo charger for Motofone

v  d  e

Motorola phones by series

A

A760  A780  A835 

A845  A910  A925  A1000  A1600  A1800

C

C115  C168/C168i  C350  C550  C139  C620 

E

E365   E398  E680  E770  E815  E1000

EM

EM25/EM325   EM326g  EM28/EM330  EM30  EM35

i

i710  i860  i870  i920/i930  i880  i455  i9

MPx

MPx200   MPx220

Q

Q   Q8   Q9h   Q9c   Q9m   Q11

T

T720

U

U9

V

V60i  V180  V188  V190  V220  V265  V276  V325  V360  V400  V525  V550  V551  V557  V600  V620  V635  V710  V980

W

W156/W160  W175/W180   W181   W206/W213   W220  W230  W270   W370  W377   W385   W510

Z

Z6c  Z6w  Z6tv  Z9

VE

VE538  VE66

4LTR

FONE F3  KRZR K1  KRZR K1m  KRZR K2  VIZR  KRZR K3  KRZR K3m  MING  MOTO Z6c  PEBL  RAZR  RAZR maxx  RAZR 2  RIZR Z3  RIZR/ROKR Z6  ROKR Z6m  RIZR Z8  RIZR Z10  ROKR E1  ROKR E2  ROKR E3  ROKR E6  ROKR E8  ROKR W5  SLVR L2  SLVR L6  SLVR L7  SLVR L9/L72  SCPL  ZINE ZN5

Other

CLIQ  Devour  Droid  DynaTAC  MicroTAC  International 3200  StarTac  VE538

Categories: Motorola mobile phones | 2006 introductionsHidden categories: Articles with unsourced statements from June 2009 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles that may contain original research from June 2009 | Articles with a promotional tone from June 2009 | All articles with a promotional tone