Snake oil

[Kaluriel]

These kind of scams disgust me. I once saw an advert that said you don't need insulin to treat diabetes, you can cure all types with their homemade remedies.

[c4757p]

There's a vast difference between "this $5000 cable will give your ears a blowjob" and "you don't need medicine".

[Kaluriel]

I'd hope for $5000 it would be a cure all panacea that gave my ears a blowjob

[c4757p]

Nah. $5000 should get you a solid gold cable, but it may be just enough to get a doctor to say "God bless you" when you sneeze.

[JoannaK]

Not sure if this one has been linked.. but seriously?

http://www.trueaudiophile.com/stage-iii-zyklop-ultimate-audio-power-1-5-meter/

Power cord, 1.5 meter ... Merely $6600 ..-
Extra half meter  +$2300

Yeeha. 

[4to20Milliamps]

A snake oil thread with no LRL's int it?

They must work.

[4to20Milliamps]

Gee I didn't mean to put the kabosh on the snake oil thread 

For anyone that doesn't know (which I'm sure everybody does) these devices are the greatest things ever made, but to use one you have to be wise enough to solve this cryptic word puzzle:

Lo_ng  R_n_e   _ocator

only then will you be able to find tons of gold with it, which of course I have and I'd show everybody a picture but I'm afraid the government would confiscate it......so you'll just have to take my word for it.

http://www.rangertell.com/products.html

these things are awesome all you do is input the frequency for gold on the phase modulation/human interface portion, and bingo you can find gold from hundreds of miles away.

Oh, you also have to adjust the antenna for atmospheric conditions.

[4to20Milliamps]

Also I do use the gold cables for my computer speakers, especially the one inside the case, microphonics can be a real problem when you're as anal about audio as I am..


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microphonics

[amspire]

Not sure if this one has been linked.. but seriously?

http://www.trueaudiophile.com/stage-iii-zyklop-ultimate-audio-power-1-5-meter/

That trueaudiophile site is quite entertaining. Their $14,999 preamplifier is "the finest preamplifier ever made", but they recommend that if you buy it, you pay extra to replace the capacitors and the volume control with better ones.

http://www.trueaudiophile.com/audion-premier-quattro-line-mc-phono-4-box-pre-amplifier-model-no-q4/

The specifications are truly amazing:

Phase - Correct
Distortion @ 1V Noise (CCIR)

It is so good, they do not even need numbers for the specifications - the specs do not even need to mean anything when the quality is this high.

Signal to noise ratio is 70dB so there is some audible hiss and rectified mains noise, but it is the finest hiss and rectified mains noise you will ever hear.

[ResR]

High quality preamplifier and they are using soviet 6N23P vacuum tubes or western analog of it, seriously, for $14,999.00? I have at least 10 of those tubes found from old TV-s channel selector, what a rip-off  . Althought  6N23P was said here in Estonia to be the best pre-amp tubes during 1980-s, but modern audio tubes are far better.
Edit 1: Polypropylene capacitors too? God. Nice find, Joanna K. I have never laughed so hard before._

[madshaman]

Not sure if this one has been linked.. but seriously?

http://www.trueaudiophile.com/stage-iii-zyklop-ultimate-audio-power-1-5-meter/

Power cord, 1.5 meter ... Merely $6600 ..-
Extra half meter  +$2300

Yeeha. 

"Treble and midrange are smoother and better defined, while bass increases in depth and articulation. Increased video contrast and sharpness will make images practically holographic." 

- Bwahahahhahahahaahahahaahaaaa.

"100% radiation invulnerable shielding uses exclusive H.D.A.(High Density Alloy) foil plus nickel plated copper braid"

- Cool!  So if I wear the stuff as a jacket I'll be invulnerable to high velocity neutrons!

"Custom handmade polymer-filled, carbon fiber plug housings help eliminate external vibrations."

- I didn't know simple cable could also be microphonic, explains why the electrons got so angry when I dropped a box containing some test leads; I did notice they moved slower after the incident, but then again I might have forgotten to angle them downwards so the they wouldn't have to work against gravity so much.  What they fail to mention is that electrons from warmer climates might not fair as well in cold climates.  Imagine buying a $6000 cable only to find that most of the electrons died in transport?

[gerrysweeney]

  It would be sad if it was not so hilariously ridiculous - sad thing is, there are people out there that actually buy this stuff!

[Orpheus]

Saw this eBay auction and thought of you all:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bike-EMF-Shield-/251236135696

[madshaman]

Saw this eBay auction and thought of you all:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bike-EMF-Shield-/251236135696

Are you freaking kidding!  It's on sale for only $31 !!!  Tell me you're not going to let your family go unprotected for such a low price.

[c4757p]

Each LSWI Bike EMF Shields is encoded with 200+ balancing frequencies extracted from the purest sources of nature using twentieth century technology of quantum physics. LSWI Bike EMF Shields actually transform the hazardous microwave fields from cell towers and the electromagnetic field radiation from power lines into a powerful balancing field of protection around you and your family members.

It's got to be a joke. It's got to be a joke. It's got to be a joke. It's got to be a joke.  I'm just going to keep telling myself that until it goes away. 

[digsys]

DAMMITT !! I wish I'd checked the usage instructions FIRST !! I inserted mine up my rectum ..
It did seem to work though ..

[4to20Milliamps]

Spectrum......not rectum. 

That thing would look nice on my tin foil hat.

[BobbyK]

I submit: http://www.dwavesys.com/en/pressreleases.html#investment_2012

Seems these guys cannot really even quantify why their product works. There are plenty of well-regardedscientists who have called them out on their fraud, and yet they keep getting more and more funds from investors impressed by their giant black-box machine!


http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/loser-dwave-does-not-quantum-compute
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/407652/qa-d-waves-geordie-rose/

[amspire]

I submit: http://www.dwavesys.com/en/pressreleases.html#investment_2012

I am not sure that technology that is real but very difficult really fits into the category of snake oil.

It looks like D-Wave have built real computers, and their 128 qubit computer was used to do this Harvard research:

http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/120813/srep00571/full/srep00571.html

NY Times did a story about Lockheed Martin using the technology:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/technology/testing-a-new-class-of-speedy-computer.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Attached are some photo's of the D-Wave 128 qubit processor:

[justanothercanuck]

Quantum computing is real, whether it's viable for home use, I don't believe so.  It seems more suited to science and research types.

[BobbyK]

Well, they talk about quantum computing, but what they really have is quantum annealing. I would compare the two approaches to using a real synchronous programmable CPU e.g. vs applying an input to a bunch of astable elements of a particular design, and hoping that they settle into something that approximates the result you are after. If they hadn't called it a quantum computer, but rather a "quantum effect computer" I might have been more lenient

[Orpheus]

Then again, when a press release cites a list of "supporters" (for legitimacy) then adds one lonely paragraph of [nonsensical, empty] "factual" substance before it signs off:

D-Wave will use the new funding to augment its commercial operations and further increase its capabilities to provide solutions to its customers. This added capital allows D-Wave to pursue its growth strategy with the intention of making a difference to their customers' mission objectives. Those objectives are central to D-Wave technological innovation and quantum computing applications development. "Our Intelligence Community customers have many complex problems that tax classical computing architecture," stated Robert Ames, Vice President in charge of Information and Communication Technologies at IQT, "We believe our customers can benefit from the promise of quantum computing, and this investment in D-Wave is a first step in that direction."

Tell me that doesn't sound like snake oil.

Of course the financial regs encourage that sort of thing, but thoughtful financial analysts have been excoriating the snake oil being marketed to consumers (and often business) as "investment vehicles" for decades

[Orpheus]

To be precise:

I have no problem with the use of Quantum Annealing. I once had good familiarity with the issues of protein folding (I was a molecular biologist who went back to school to study medicine) and it seems eminently suited to that problem --and undoubtedly several others-- but one shouldn't expect it to apply directly to general computation. OTOH, QA is quite analogous to some forms of analog computing, which I admire and feel is given far too little attention today, and which proved itself capable of surprising things.

But here's a press release you'll never read: "Company X (XCO) announced today that it will no longer be seeking or accepting investment funding. It CEO, Dr. Frank Earnest, said 'We made some really big advances early on; some have called them Nobel-caliber quantum leaps; but over the last few years we've seen that we can only make substantial steady improvements in our technology, not the quantum leap(s) required to allow it to live up to its promise. We are continuing our development work solely in the hope of patenting some key technique or process that the next groundbreaking start-up will want or need to license."

Rarely does a company give up on funding (or investors give up on the jackpot), even if all the top management agrees they are NOT on the road to a breakthrough -- and that's not evil: almost all founder/academicians necessarily accept that incremental research in a field is worthwhile, even if a breakthrough is not imminent. However, their press releases continue to make them sound like the Next Great Thing -- and that is the snake oil. Marketing runs on snake oil, is lubricated by snake oil, and outputs snake oil.

[JoeyP]

Saw this eBay auction and thought of you all:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bike-EMF-Shield-/251236135696

Are you freaking kidding!  It's on sale for only $31 !!!  Tell me you're not going to let your family go unprotected for such a low price.

I checked into volume pricing, and sure enough, they do offer volume discounts! Here's their response:

"Thank you for contacting us.  The retail price for the Bike EMF
Shield is $39.00  We posted it at a discounted price of $35,00 and as you
know, we  added a 10% spring discount on top of that for the last week of
March.  As a courtesty to you, we would offer an additional discount of
$1.00 off per item plus S & H for an order of 12 shields."

There's no longer any excuse to go without shielding!

[BobbyK]

"LSWI Bike EMF Shields are especially designed to maximize your protection from harmful EMF and RF radiation while you enjoy the outdoors. Each LSWI Bike EMF Shields is encoded with 200+ balancing frequencies extracted from the purest sources of nature using twentieth century technology of quantum physics. LSWI Bike EMF Shields actually transform the hazardous microwave fields from cell towers and the electromagnetic field radiation from power lines into a powerful balancing field of protection around you and your family members. Because of the metallic nature of bicycles, they are extremely high conductors of the radio and electromagnetic frequencies so prevalent in the environment. It is therefore strongly recommended to use the LSWI Bike EMF Shields every time you or your loved ones are out riding."


Ahahha....laughed my butt off! Those guys are hillarious.