The Off Topic Topic

[Savonarola]

OK, why is my WiFi signal "low" and yet if I move the laptop 3/4 inch to the left (away from the router) it improves markedly to "Very Good" ?

As the radio frequency your computer has been interacted with by the environment; and it's actually a composite of signals that travel along different paths.  In engineering terms these signals interfere with one another.  They can cancel each other out or can add to one another.  As you move your laptop you change the path that each signal takes and can move out of an interfering dead spot into a higher power area.

It's the same as radio, where you can be stuck in a dead spot at a traffic light, but if you move a few feet forward you'll be in full coverage.

[PDH]

None of your mumbo jumbo.  Just tell him why.

[Ideologue]

OK, why is my WiFi signal "low" and yet if I move the laptop 3/4 inch to the left (away from the router) it improves markedly to "Very Good" ?

As the radio frequency your computer has been interacted with by the environment; and it's actually a composite of signals that travel along different paths.  In engineering terms these signals interfere with one another.  They can cancel each other out or can add to one another.  As you move your laptop you change the path that each signal takes and can move out of an interfering dead spot into a higher power area.

It's the same as radio, where you can be stuck in a dead spot at a traffic light, but if you move a few feet forward you'll be in full coverage.

You're the best poster on Languish.

[Phillip V]

I live and work among these people (geographically).

A Fort Bragg soldier and his wife are accused of engaging in sex acts with dogs and then posting video of the encounters on the Internet.

http://www.wbtw.com/story/23446453/nc-soldier-arrested-for-making-porn-with-dogs

[Admiral Yi]

Man I pray to Hod he's not a K-9 handler.

[Ideologue]

Bestiality aside, she's hot.

[garbon]

Crimes against nature seems like an inappropriate term.

[lustindarkness]

I live and work among these people (geographically).

A Fort Bragg soldier and his wife are accused of engaging in sex acts with dogs and then posting video of the encounters on the Internet.

http://www.wbtw.com/story/23446453/nc-soldier-arrested-for-making-porn-with-dogs

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

[Ed Anger]

Beastiality. Barf.

[mongers]

Bestiality aside, she's hot.

You'd follow where a dog todger had been? 

[mongers]

OK, why is my WiFi signal "low" and yet if I move the laptop 3/4 inch to the left (away from the router) it improves markedly to "Very Good" ?

As the radio frequency your computer has been interacted with by the environment; and it's actually a composite of signals that travel along different paths.  In engineering terms these signals interfere with one another.  They can cancel each other out or can add to one another.  As you move your laptop you change the path that each signal takes and can move out of an interfering dead spot into a higher power area.

It's the same as radio, where you can be stuck in a dead spot at a traffic light, but if you move a few feet forward you'll be in full coverage.

Sav, thanks for that; so it's in the same arena as holding the aerial on ones FM radio in different ways ?

[Ideologue]

Bestiality aside, she's hot.

You'd follow where a dog todger had been? 

Well, at least she didn't pick up any viruses.

[CountDeMoney]

Beastiality. Barf.

I'm in a moral quagmire over this one.

[Savonarola]

Sav, thanks for that; so it's in the same arena as holding the aerial on ones FM radio in different ways ?

That's similar; radio waves are polarized (broadcast in either the horizontal or vertical direction.)  Polarized sunglasses, for instance, cut out all light waves except those in the direction of the polarization.  If you were to take two pairs of polarized sunglasses and put them at 90 degrees to one another no light would get through and you'd have complete blackness. 

FM radio is broadcast in both horizontal and vertical planes (cross polarized), so when you tilt your antenna you're trying to get the maximum receive from both planes; that is if they came in both at equal power a 45 degree angle would give you the strongest signal.  The phenomena I mentioned above (multipath) is one reason that vertical and horizontal signals will come in at different strengths.  There are others, though, materials tend to attenuate horizontal radio frequency more than vertical.

[PDH]

Ahh, so it is magic