Day: August 14, 2007

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FCC Issues $1 Million Forfeiture Order

I think I scooped Conformity Magazine on this one, it’s not that I was trying to scoop them, I just got lucky. 😉

Last year I posted about the FCC issuing a notice of apparent liability against Behringer USA, Inc. On June 1st, the FCC released the forfeiture order for one million dollars, ouch. The FCC rejected Behringer’s claims including one that CE compliance = FCC compliance. Quote from the order:

12. We disagree. Although the CE and the FCC standards share some common elements, as the NAL noted, “[CE] testing neither is the equivalent of nor demonstrates compliance with the Commission’s technical standards.”

Lesson for all you designers, manufacturers and, importers of embedded devices, follow the FCC rules, they take their job very seriously. If FCC enforcement isn’t enough inducement think of it this way. How would you like it if an emergency professional had delays helping you or a loved one because some interfering product is being operated nearby. Think about it, RF interference isn’t usually a life or death situation but it could be.

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Wasting more of my tax dollars

Sadly the NCCAM has requested $122 million for its FY 08 budget and they’ll likely get it. After decades of research and tons of cash spent what do we have to show for it, nothing. Well not exactly nothing we have more studies showing that none of it works better than other placebo effects. When are we going to wake up and smell the coffee, disband the NCCAM and give the money to NIH to help us actually improve health care.

It’s one thing for private individuals in the US to waste their own $40 Billion per year on placebo effects but, it’s totally unfair to spend my tax dollars on studying these bogus treatments. No matter how many CAM studies show there ineffectiveness, people will keep spending their money on quackery. Many of these CAM practices have been shown ineffective for centuries yet people keep buying in do to wishful thinking and deluded or fraudulent practitioners. 😦

Hat tip to Orac for pointing this out this insanity.