I know that I posted thoughts recently about my feelings concerning your action to limit access to the new blue diodes, or try to make it so that only people you deem fit could get them.
End quote.
Electrofreak:
...When I was 18 back in 1988, I could not easily buy OEM laser parts. I got told I had to buy hene heads, instead of bare tubes. Why? Congress said so. Manufacturers had to put serial numbers on every plasma tube and maintain lists of the initial buyer. Why? So they could be recalled if there was a hazard or if misused. Makers of commercial lasers had to, and still have to, with a exception for pointers and certain consumer devices.
They still do, the law has not changed.
...Since your little excursion into bulk resale of the harvested Casio diodes was distribution of a large quantity of class IV lasers, without the US required labeling requirements, record keeping, etc You violated the law. Get off your damn high horse. I'm not the only one who has said this.
...Your damn straight I that I don't want my neighbors 12 year old kid having access to a 1 watt diode for $50 or 200$. Your damn straight that I don't want to walk into a club and get hit in the eye with 1 watt of static beam. Hell, walking into the local music store and getting hit, at eye level, with unexpected static 200+ mW was bad enough.
....Certain rules, regulations, and laws exist based on the learning experience of prior generations. Radiation safety has became a joke in the past 10 years, so we will have to live through the learning experience once again. Mark my words, as diodes start to follow Moore's law, incidents WILL, and already, are, happening. Just because there is no reporting mechanism in the US, does not mean that incidents are not happening. Anecdotal evidence is slowly starting to show up for incidents with static beams.
I openly admitted I wanted the damn things restricted, and that was NO reason for you to hijack my thread for your unlimited, lengthy, rants. I put up with it once, I will not again.
...You are not going to limit my posting here, and you are not going to destroy any of my future threads. I have bent over backwards to stay civil in this venue, but I can easily become the 350 pound silverback Gorilla in the room.
...You are not some "defender" of "laser freedom", the rules are already on the books and have been enforced in the past.
... If I can lobby to have the rules enforced, I will. OH wait, I DID. Its not like I was NOT open about it, either. You'll have to take my word for it, but I lobbied that legit, varianced, laser show use and hobby/educational use needs to be retained, its quasi production sales such as yours and illegal imports to the gneral public that I lobbied against. Did I have tens of thousands of dollars so I could get the law changed, no. But did I pick up the phone,yes. My right to do so is constitutional.
What is not legal or moral (As well as defacto not constitutional) is unlimited use of a high power device in public, with unsuspecting recipients. Even a libertarian will tell you that infringes on the rights of others. What you do to yourself is unlimited, until it has effects on me. Want to kill yourself, fine! As long as I don't have to pay taxes to care for your orphaned kids, widowed wife, and potters field for your burial. But when you place others at risk, you have just broken the social contract and are infringing their rights.
You do not need 1 watt laser pens at Walmart or at your kid's junior high school.
Example of how it gets out of control:
Long before diode pointers existed, I took a HENE to high school for my physics teacher to borrow. I carried it around all day, as it would not fit in my stuffed locker. At our school, locks were assigned and there were only about 5 different lock codes, anyways. So physical custody was a good idea, so I thought.
Well, in Gym class, my pals grabbed the laser, went up on the balcony, and decided that long distance laser probing measurement of various portions of female anatomy were in order. Oh, did I get in trouble, for that one. Not just a trip to the main office, but a lot of social trouble. (Sorry Amy! Sorry Jen! Sorry Ellie! ) At .85 mW of 633, and a 110V cord, not much of a issue. But today they could do that at a watt in a 6 inch package off a lithium cell. So don't tell me the &*^$& general public is ready for hand held use of high power lasers and nothing will happen. In 1988 nobody, outside of a small user community, had a clue about anything laser other then bar code scanners, and today the general public still does not.
Did I know better, yes, my dad made me read, memorize, explain, and sign the laser safety instruction book before I took the unit in. Did I exercise a reasonable standard of care, no.. Did it get my buddy Stevie D a date, yes.. Did it get me anywhere but massively henpecked for the next few weeks, no,... Did it have a social impact, yes. Did I run up the stairs and shut the damn thing off, fast enough, No. I was out of the gym when this started, back stage setting up for a event. Did I try to "illuminate" one young lady, yes. (So sorry Julie C.!)
...If it were not a private school, my ass would have been expelled and I would have been right back into the drug infested dump of my local school district. If that would have happened, I would have never made it to college. Instead, the principal, a physicist, got a kick out of the whole mess and adjusted the penalty. Private religious schools have, shall we say, some " unique" punishments. I still have the hene, at its rock solid at .80 mW.
So don't tell me these "minor" things do not have impacts. And dont give me some pseudo " liberty to do whatever you want" speech, the world does not work that way.
I learn from my mistakes. I have to, because if I screw up, people get hurt. That is the nature of the applied technology business. I have to have the foresight to see the potential impacts, and the skills to cope with the ones I miss. Part of that means keeping a eye on my fellow technologists, and praying that they keep a watchful eye on me.
"No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
John Donne
Steve
Last edited by mixedgas; 08-02-2010 at 07:21.
Qui habet Christos, habet Vitam!
I should have rented the space under my name for advertising.
When I still could have...