When is it time to say 'No' designing a pain giving device?

I just came across the Pavlok a device that by design is to cause pain; Reference: Pavlov's Dogs.

THE FIRST DEVICE THAT BREAKS HABITS BY DELETING TEMPTATION.
PAVLOK ASSOCIATES A MILD ZAP WITH YOUR BAD HABIT, TRAINING YOUR BRAIN TO STOP LIKING THE HABIT.
THE ZAP IS AN ELECTRIC SENSATION THAT RANGES FROM PLEASANT TO SLIGHTLY UNCOMFORTABLE.

I realize the debate about designing weapons that kill people have been going on forever and we are not likely to have answers to that debate here.

What happens when the software in the device or its control app have bugs? What are the security of the device being 'hacked' or used by the mysterious evil 'Them' (fill in your choice of conspiracy group)?

The one that really puts it over the top for me is linking this pain giving device to Smart Meters. Set your thermostat to high you get Zapped. Is this really the world we want to be creating with the Internet of Things (IoT)?

'Road to hell'

...Prof Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert from Surrey University, said the more connections which are made between devices, the greater the risk of a security weakness.

"Having a convoluted interaction between systems is almost inevitably going to lead to unintended security flaws," he said.

"I know this type of technology is developed with the best of intentions but the road to hell is paved with them."

"Just because you can connect devices en masse doesn't necessarily mean you should." -- http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36301778

Having watched my late wife suffer from Chronic Pain for years I will refuse to be involved with any device that causes someone to experience any level of pain. Karen's Journal is required reading at Duke School of Medicine.

Karen's first-hand account of her illness gave an honest, heart-wrenching depiction of what it is like to live with debilitating pain day-to-day. -- The Derrick Newspaper, Sept 8th 2014.

The late Karen Shettler Paddock on cover of the local newspaper.

NTP Study shows Cell Phones cause brain cancer. 50 Hz causes heart tumors.

The National Toxicology Program (NTP) animal study started in 1999 released summary of their findings this week. Cell Phones cause brain cancer. 50 Hz, the power line frequency used in Europe, causes heart tumors.

The cell phone "radiofrequency radiation (RFR)" study is led by the NTP, headquartered at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The NTP has posted their report of the study’s findings: Report of Partial findings from the National Toxicology Program Carcinogenesis Studies of Cell Phone Radiofrequency Radiation in Hsd: Sprague Dawley® SD rats (Whole Body Exposure). Note the comments about the study. Some are insightful for future studies most are just the usual fear mongering.

Length report http://microwavenews.com/news-center/ntp-cancer-results that can be summed up this way:

"Importantly, the exposed rats were found to have higher rates of two types of cancers: glioma, a tumor of the glial cells in the brain, and malignant schwannoma of the heart, a very rare tumor. None of the unexposed control rats developed either type of tumor."

See also:

http://microwavenews.com

Cellphone Towers Amplify Pain in Amputees: http://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2016/2/4/cellphone-towers-amplify-pain-in-amputees

Anthropogenic Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields Elicit Neuropathic Pain in an Amputation Model: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0144268

Cell Phone Convenience or 21st Century Plague?
Compiled by Dr. Nick Begich and the late James Roderick.
July/26/2000
http://www.mind-fields.org/doku.php/cellphone/21stplague

If you are at all interested in this stuff a book you MUST read is The Body Electric by the late Dr Robert Becker (Not Bob Beck).

There also lots of scam devices out there that sell you something to reduce cell phone radiation then show before and after thermal graphs. I want to see a thermal graphs of an empty cell phone case held to the head. I expect it will give the same thermal graph.

If such a device worked there will be a noticeable decrees in battery life. If the 'radiation' is reduced the cell tower would get a weaker signal and the range would be less. The transmit power level of a cell phone is controlled dynamically which is why when it places with poor cell phone reception the battery drains faster due to the phone using a higher transmit power. If such a device worked it will drain the battery faster even with no connection to the battery.

A simple way to reduce exposure is use wired ear buds. They still don't bring the risk to zero. Bluetooth Handsfree headsets are not improvement. Bluetooh operates at 2.6 GHz. The same frequency as your microwave oven and WiFi. I'm not putting a tiny microwave oven next to my head...

Visit to Large Scale Systems Museum in New Kensington Pennsylvania

Yesterday [ January 30th 2016 ] I paid a visit to the Large Scale Systems Museum (LSSM), Dave McGuire President/Curator, in New Kensington Pennsylvania.

The audio makes it sound like a very noise place, really it is not, just the microphone picking up the background cooling fans.

Currently the Museum is open only by appointment.  It is expanding to two floors soon and will then be open to the public.

Still pictures of the machines both insides and out are found on my site.

The machine labelled "ML AI" is the actual machine that The Scheme Programming Language was created on.

Directions: https://maps.here.com/directions/drive/mylocation/LSSM-large-scale-systems-museum:40.565697,-79.766243?map=40.57196,-79.76624,12,normal&fb_locale=en_US

Maxim make the best parts that no one can ever get. Are you a "stale_member" too?

I was telling someone about the Maxim Integrated  
 MAXREFDES73# reference design a wearable, mobile galvanic skin response (GSR) system.

We were hoping to get a few of them for some parapsychology experiments. When my client asked how much it cost, I tried to log into my Maxim account, established years ago. 

All in all the experience matched that of Maxim's reputation for delivery, that is it won't. :-( 

Says it does not know my email address. When I try to register it (I've had account there for years) it says my email address is already registered and I'm a "stale_member".

Password reset generated a SQL error. So does it know my email address or not?

This is just as bad as the Maxim factory dude walking in to our meeting and saying "I don't make it out here to the Rust Belt very often...", not realizing how insulting that is to those in the area. 

They seem to make the best parts that no one can ever get... :-(  What has been your Maxim experience?

I wonder if that is why TI and Analog Device both just passed on buying them?

Maybe they are up For Sale because ignoring the markets delivery concerns has finally caught up with them?

Even this distributors in the Pittsburgh/Cleveland Market area try to get you to not buy Maxim parts from them, they don't want to hear the delivery complaints...