"Joe" wrote in message
...

Seems to me someone in our dysfunctional Congress needs to address
this issue. Or maybe Consumer Reports or AARP could launch a campaign.

I've come to believe that only laws that help businesses who bring buckets
of cash to campaigns get passed. )-: Congress critters on both sides of
the aisle are equally guilty and it will only get worse until we ban
campaign contributions. Who in this world gives money to someone without
expecting something in return? Yet Congress wants us to believe they are
above all that. Edwards has been paying his mistress with left-over
campaign funds. Ensign has been trying to bribe the husband of the woman
he's having an affair with and more than a few are in jail, or heading there
soon. Trust them to fix the smoke alarm problem? I wouldn't trust any of
them with even a burned-out match.

We supposedly have Consumer Product Safety working for us, but they
seem to be asleep except for traces of lead in Chinese toy paint.

The key word is "supposedly" - a lot of people bought into the idea that any
regulation was bad regulation along with the fairytale that you can lower
taxes but still run government effectively. Now, as a result, there's very
little pre-emptive enforcement. It's only when the dead children and pets
start to stack up that regulators seem to notice anything's amiss.

On the technical side, what do you audio experts think of having a
raunchy sounding dual tone that would generate a beat frequency that
would be even more (maybe disagreeably) audible?

As I read up on this subject, research indicates that flashing lights are
nearly useless in rousing someone from sleep. High frequency sounders are
almost as bad. Kids and adults are apparently able to sleep through both.
The lower square wave of 520Hz seems to be the best at waking people, as far
as tones are concerned. Even better is to have a "bed shaker" connected to
the alarm output.

The problem I face here is resistance. My friend says he's quite happy with
not being able to hear the alarm, but I suspect because he's infirm and
usually in a lot of pain, that he's feeling a little suicidal. I know he
won't spring for a complicated security system. He already got sold an
expensive system from the people that wander door-to-door selling such
things (I know, I know. I already chastized him greatly for that.!) He's
not likely to buy another one (he doesn't even use this one because the
vendor went under. So my best hope of getting him protection is to make it
cheap and easy to install.

Thanks for your input!

--
Bobby G.