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Hey, if you want to email me with an address, I'd be more than happy to drive on out there (as close as I can get) and take a "roll" of digital pictures to put up on my web site. I'm off all day tomorrow so let me know.

-B

If using binaries/source from non-vendors weirds you out, you can also grab the RPMs for RH9, or the SRPMs for other releases (and presumeably other distros like SuSE, Mandrake, et al. as well) directly from the OpenBSD guys. The only US mirror which had them (as of this morning when I heard about the announcement) was ftp://ftp3.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/OpenSSH/por table/rpm/. I didn't look through the international mirrors, but I got pretty good speeds from across the country.

-B

The only printer I have working now is the old receipt thermal printer from my former cash register. It's blazingingly fast, but only does 60 columns. And it's really small text. Great for grocery lists, for code not so much. And I only have two rolls of the free Service Merchandise paper left.

Anyway, there's my random thought for the day. Thought I'd share. I think now I'll head over to ebay.

-B

0WN3D!


I just got your fingerprint, I AM YOU!

AHAHAHAHAHAHHAA, welcome to the 21st century of Homeland Security, Wee! Better start cancelling those credit cards!

Having the VFD sit up on a stick is what really makes it useful, IMO.

-B

Having the VFD sit up on a stick is what really makes it useful, IMO.

-B

Linux has been used on cash registers in the past. If I recall correctly, The Home Depot, uses Linux in its system. However, I wouldn't want to go with what they use because it doesn't have a lot of functionality. I tried to get a subtotal printed on my receipt and it couldn't do it.

Links:

• Linux on a cash register.
• - Get the hardware and do it yourself.
• View Touch Systems
• - They seem to run Linux.
• Squirrel Systems
• - They seem to run Linux.

You know what I just realized? I've never installed drivers from VisionTek. I always go to nVidia's site, grab the Win32 and Linux drivers and stick them both on a network share. I never even thought about going to VisionTek's site. Huh. Maybe that's what's killing them? The cookie producers can't get out from under the name of the company that makes the dough?

Anyway, great board. I'm eventually going to stop dual booting and get a dedicated Win32 box (grumble... Loki's dead... grumble...), like maybe one of those barebones cubist boxes from Shuttle. I'll probably stick a GeForce4 in that, but I'm keeping the GTS Pro in my main Linux workstation. Of course, I still have a machine with a Voodoo3 in it, so I may be a bit of an anachronist...

-B

VFDs are the displays on cash registers etc. You can program one quite easily via the serial port. You can see one implementation here.

Damn. Now you've made me all nostalgic. Anyone here remember "World Beyond" in Phoenix, AZ in the summers on Saturday morning? They had great trashy sci-fi movies and a ZZ Top guitar riff for intro music? Anyone remember Edmus Scary? Had AC/DC's "Back in Black" for a doorbell?

Damn again. Sometimes I miss being a kid. Then I remember how badly 9th grade sucked and I get over it.

-B

It's very fun, and very addictive. Even if I were predisposed to, I could never do drugs because I can't afford them after paying for paintball stuff. It's athletic crack. But so is golf or tennis for some folks. It takes all kinds. But if you like Quake/FPS games and you play paintball once, then you're in serious trouble.

So if I wanted to give it a shot, would you recommend I should get my own gun or use a rental? It sounds like rentals are annoyingly inaccurate, which I'm sure would frustrate me, but I don't want to make a large purchase on something I might only use a couple of times. Are there any entry-level guns that are reliable and accurate? Are places likely to rent these guns?

If you want to try the game, then use a rental the first time or four. They aren't that great, but if you don't like the game they aren't a commitment. If you play at a place that has a lot of rental customers (look for places that advertise at churches, have father/son days, etc.) then you should be fine. The first game is the worst (and most exciting). You have a lot to worry about then, and having a rental gun which can be dropped, mangled, lost, folded, spindled, etc removes a whole set of worries out of your mind and lets you concetrate on the game.

Many fields have several "classes" of guns that you can rent. Thebottom of th rbarrel are the ones that probably have bent barrels. They cost (new, like if you bought one) about $35. You get what you pay for. If you go with a fraternity or church or your dept at work or whatever and everyone gets one of these, then it's all good fun. Having a "race gun" when everyone else has a crappy rental isn't going to be much fun for you or the guy you shoot. Now, if you go out with agroup and you decide to pay the extra $25 or whatever to upgrade to a better gun, then you're The Man and nobody can give you grief because they are just cheap at that point. So you'll see like three classes of rentals: the normal cheapos, the middle types (which aren't much better than cheapos), and the good ones. They good ones are typically fairly decent guns. They see some wear, but they are well made and can handle it. Look for names like Spyder and Tippman and Pirahna; any of those should be fine. My first marker was a Spyder TL+, which I see as a rental quite often. I had a non-stock barrel, but it was essentialy the same gun as a high-end rental. Oh, pricing. If you go to a full service place that has structures and scenarios and everything, then you likely won't need to bring anything but tennis shoes. You'll pay about $25 for entry and basic rental. Then you might get an all-day air refill for another $5. Then you can rent mask, coveralls, etc for another $30. Paint is about $50 for a case of 2000 of the cheap paint. You'll need 500-1000 the first time (since the hopper on your gun will only hold 200 and you'll have no other way to carry extra paint, you just can't shoot very much more than that). I'd say that for $50 you could have an all-day affair. Way cheaper than skiiing.

Another thing that always prevented me from trying it out (besides not knowing anyone else who wanted to play) is that I figure I would want to use a single-shot gun, because they're cheaper (I assume), but also because I think it would be more fun shooting carefully rather than just spraying paint around; but I imagine it would be really frustrating to go up against guys with 10 shot/sec guns. Do places do things that require all guns to be an equal level, or is it pretty much "use the best gun you can afford?"

You hit the nail on the head: you want to go with one or more friends. For some reason, paintball is hardwired into our lizard brains as a communal activity. You'll get out there and want to know where your buddy is. Even if he's shot out and watching you from the sidelines it'll be comforting. And a couple guys working as a group -- even if they know less about what they are doing -- will usually do much better than every man for themself. I guess that's why you see paintball as a teambuilding thing all the time.

A single-shot is almost unheard of. I can tell that you've shot real guns (or know something about them). You are thinking of paintball as an Olympic sport, where marksmanship counts. That isn't the case, per se. And because most markers have very little recoil (think pellet gun or maybe .22), then single shot vs. semi isn't a very big issue. You'll use a semi, guaranteed. And you'll see a guy running and just pull the trigger until you get him. Remember, the barrel isn't totally smooth, the projectile is (almost) round, and there's no rifling to give a gyroscopic effect to the paintball. You'll get the drop on a guy, line up a shot, and the ball will corkscrew like mad. At that point, he's heard you, so you just keep pulling the trigger. :-)

You probably won't go up against guys that have guns like mine, or who have a lot of experience. It's not fun for anyone. Fields typically split people up into groups based on what experience they have; the better the gear, typically the more experience the player has. If I show up in the beginner group wearing a jersey with my $1500 gun, then they'll know something is up and find me a new group. (BTW, the pic at that link was taken when I was with a beginner group that had never played before. But since I wanted to stay with the group I brought -- about 10 people -- then I had to play with the beginners. So I agreed to stay at the back of the field. If you go forward through the series, you can see my buddies coming up to join me, and then me pointing out where to shoot, which spools to move up to, and such.)

Having said that, you can go spend $150 and then show up with what amounts to a super quality rental. You could spend $400 and show up with a very nice semi auto. You could spend $2000 and show up with a top-end electronic gun. All without every having played. They won't prevent you from playing with the beginner group.

Anyways, thanks for the great treatise. The last time I got such a wonderfully lengthy reply from a simple question was when I asked a fly shop owner about the basics of fly fishing. It turned out he had a masters in entomolgy. He talked my ear off for about half an hour and I was hooked. (Boy, that was the second inadvertant stupid pun in this post) Now I can't wait till the waters clear up...

Heh heh.... you're very welcome. Thanks for reading it. I guess I sensed interest or something. It's the same with any passion I suppose. I'm a little older than most players (35) and so I tend to get more esoteric about it. So if anyone asks me about the game and I can tell that they really want to know, I can give them a detailed analysis. And it's a big topic, with a lot of opinion in place of hard fact (accuracy of aftermarket barrels or certain brands of paintballs being a big one).

Summing up, I'd say that you should find someone who's played for a bit locally. Your locale means a lot to what sort of experience you'll find (Georgia has more woodsy fields than Oakland, and so different types of games). If you can't find a friend who's played, then find one wiling to play. Find 5, actually. Then go to the nearest paintball store, buy a case of paint, and ask the owner where the best field for beginners is. He'll talk your ear off better than any fly fisherman can... :-)

BTW, pardon my atrocious spelling. My fingers don't seem to work right. I've been finishing a big project at work, and my carpal tunnel to me....

-B

I agree, installing linux on a 200MhZ Pentium system isn't very amazing (or worthy of slashdot front-page coverage :), but I did think this part was sort of cool. Of course, he only did it after receiving full docs from the company, so it's really not that much of a feat...

The article was interesting, but to me, just as entertaining was the 404 error for the host when I went searching for the gaps in his battle with the cash register, such as 003.html or 007.html.

neat little zork message.

The article was interesting, but to me, just as entertaining was the 404 error for the host when I went searching for the gaps in his battle with the cash register, such as 003.html or 007.html.

neat little zork message.

I slid the little PC out the back and then took the cover off. The case is like 16 gauge steel. Seriously, it's thicker metal then that of my gun safe. I figured they did that for additional security or RF shielding or both. (from this page)

-B

BlackBox is highly configurable, too. I was bored one day filling in at one of our data centers and decided to switch the Ops workstation to use BlackBox. One thing I wish KDE could do is run a program like CMatrix in the root window... :-)

-B