[originel]

Quote:

(a violation of FCC laws?)

nah that's not against regs. actually if things weren't shielded a lot of electronics wouldn't work. The clause that states "this device must accept any incoming e/m" (paraphrased) basically means that it must be able to deal with any e/m in the air because all e/m in the air is (theoretically) regulated by the FCC and that they can't go complaining to the FCC about it.

basically the way E/M interference (it's not radiation fyi) works is through the relationship between eletric and magnetic waves. whenever you send current through a straight wire it will create an e/m field that runs in a circle around it like insulation on a cable. btw, this is how electric magnets work...they coil a piece of wire which focuses the e/m into a straight line. Well all of the e/m in the air adds up and the way e/m fields are created from current also works the other way around. so when these e/m fields hit wires in electronics they will induce a current in the wire. This can have many different effects, from overloading a line and causing the circuit to fry (only in extreme cases) or it can do other things like change the potential which can, for example, change a digital 1 to a 0 or vice versa and scramble the data. a lot of other things can happen depending on the device.