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Conference not with a phone, but with the force.

What about the iForce, my Big Blue little green friend?

- www.PeenieWallie.com

Don't you mean Darth Vista?

- www.PeenieWallie.com

http://www.peeniewallie.com/2007/07/drobo.html

This new storage device is unimaginably cool. I watched the Drobo video today and this thing is so slick I thought it might be a hoax. But, it's a real product. It figures. I got my Buffalo Terastation in October, and this little jewel comes out six months later. Doh!

If you're looking for a storage solution for a lot of data, this Drobo looks like the way to go.

I wonder if we could ever find the actual 100,000,000th site to recognize them. Bake them a cake... or something?

www.PeenieWallie.com

And the 100 millionth site was www.PeenieWallie.com

What will the 300 millionth be?

Amelie is the answer to the question "what could possibly be better than Cinema Paradiso?" I've seen it before, but it's easily one of my all-time favorite movies. Spectacular cinematography. One of those movies that makes you want to put on a pot of coffee and watch it all over again.

Well done on writting a 'how-to' on pointers to make the firewall better. Im sure people out there new these things, and used them to their advantage. Now all holes will be plugged and even more censorship will rein in China. You have now had your 15mins of fame.

Insecurity by obscurity.

www.PeenieWallie.com

Ordinarily, I wouldn't discount such robotics. Over the years, many great things have been done in robotics using COTS "junk" and such by such amateurs. Unfortunately, this whole thing seems to scream "scam" to me. Those transducers on the front seem like speakers ripped from some center channel surround sound speaker. The metal-shell body with small access panels, a cheesy light on top, along with an even cheesier obviously fake dish antenna (with no apparent directional control - what is the point of such an antenna, which if it was real would be directional, and would need directional control for communications on a mobile platform?), which looks like it came from one of those "get cable signal quality without a cable box" scam antenna's from the 1980's. Finally, the wheels and such look like they belong to a cheap radio-control 4WD "monster truck" toy - complete to the "bling chrome" rims. Which wouldn't be much of an issue, except it doesn't look like the thing can turn, unless it is using differential steering instead of Ackerman (sp?) (which would be the normal mode of steering for a RC vehicle unless it was a tank, which the wheels don't appear to be from).

The thing just looks cheap, cheap, cheap - and not at all like something you would expect - even a prototype - to look like for research and development purposes where there is money supposedly being invested. I have seen more highly advanced amateur robots built using COTS parts found on Ebay, by dudes in their garages on shoestring budgets, that were way better built than this thing. Honestly, it looks like something I once cobbled together when I was a kid in grammar school. It just has an air of a scam - it looks like the equivalent of those scam perpetual "energy motors" and their inventors that you see so often. Stuff enough crap together, stick it in front of an audience not versed in what they are seeing, ask for some money for investment - standard scam stuff. Finally - normally I wouldn't comment on this - but what kind of facial expression is that on that man (Manuel Salinas)? He looks somewhere between drunk, stoned, and hit with a 2x4. Maybe he just was having a bad day?

Anyhow - enough of what I think. I did some googling on the guy and his robot. A few minutes of research turned up this blog entry about the guy and his "technology"...

Scam? Most likely...

"eEye's patch is not meant to replace the forthcoming Microsoft patch, but to provide immediate protection in lieu of an available fix. In fact, eEye has engineered the patch to automatically remove itself when Microsoft's official patch comes through."[emphasis added]

Had he contacted any one of a dozen agencies to handle the complaint, he'd be in no legal trouble. The whisteblower law would protect him.

http://www.peeniewallie.com/2006/02/police_station .html

http://thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=2276325&post count=136

Re:Well, that's a big shocker. (Score:5, Interesting)
by ortcutt (711694) on Friday December 16, @04:11PM (#14274663)

I'm calling bullshit. It's easy to respond to these outrages by saying that Republicans and Democrats are all the same. But you didn't see any violations of privacy under Clinton. And today, you've got Democrats standing up to oppose the renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act. Republicans and Democrats aren't the same, and we don't need a third party. We just need a government that gives a shit about civil rights.

(picture)

If you're lucky, you may never know how good your laptop is. I found out. On Monday, September 27th, 2004, at approximately 10:30 a.m., I was traveling from San Jose, California, to South San Francisco on Interstate 280. I was driving a Honda XL 600 motorcycle in the HOV lane with my Sony Vaio laptop in my backpack. I was running right at 95 miles per hour when my backpack zipper suffered a catastrophic failure, spilling my laptop onto the interstate.

I stopped immediately, and ran back to try to salvage what I could. I found my passport, some pencils, and a few other items before I located the laptop. The laptop had crossed all four lanes of the interstate, and was resting upside down on the shoulder. It was, of course, badly damaged. Both batteries were ripped from the laptop. The screen frame was broken. A large portion of the bottom plastic was missing. The ports in the back were badly cracked and pushed out of alignment. But when I got to the office and plugged it in, it booted right up. View more photos here.

Sony Vaio. What's in your backpack? ;)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on October 16, 2004 at 04:43 PM

(picture)

If you're lucky, you may never know how good your laptop is. I found out. On Monday, September 27th, 2004, at approximately 10:30 a.m., I was traveling from San Jose, California, to South San Francisco on Interstate 280. I was driving a Honda XL 600 motorcycle in the HOV lane with my Sony Vaio laptop in my backpack. I was running right at 95 miles per hour when my backpack zipper suffered a catastrophic failure, spilling my laptop onto the interstate.

I stopped immediately, and ran back to try to salvage what I could. I found my passport, some pencils, and a few other items before I located the laptop. The laptop had crossed all four lanes of the interstate, and was resting upside down on the shoulder. It was, of course, badly damaged. Both batteries were ripped from the laptop. The screen frame was broken. A large portion of the bottom plastic was missing. The ports in the back were badly cracked and pushed out of alignment. But when I got to the office and plugged it in, it booted right up. View more photos here.

Sony Vaio. What's in your backpack? ;)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on October 16, 2004 at 04:43 PM

(picture)

If you're lucky, you may never know how good your laptop is. I found out. On Monday, September 27th, 2004, at approximately 10:30 a.m., I was traveling from San Jose, California, to South San Francisco on Interstate 280. I was driving a Honda XL 600 motorcycle in the HOV lane with my Sony Vaio laptop in my backpack. I was running right at 95 miles per hour when my backpack zipper suffered a catastrophic failure, spilling my laptop onto the interstate.

I stopped immediately, and ran back to try to salvage what I could. I found my passport, some pencils, and a few other items before I located the laptop. The laptop had crossed all four lanes of the interstate, and was resting upside down on the shoulder. It was, of course, badly damaged. Both batteries were ripped from the laptop. The screen frame was broken. A large portion of the bottom plastic was missing. The ports in the back were badly cracked and pushed out of alignment. But when I got to the office and plugged it in, it booted right up. View more photos here.

Sony Vaio. What's in your backpack? ;)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on October 16, 2004 at 04:43 PM

As you mention, interlocks now are used by court order only. This is Constitutional and reasonable. Someone needs to re-educate Mr. Martinez about the Constitution:

Speeking of the Constitution, I found this at http://www.peeniewallie.com/documents/ACLU-NM-2004 -02-18-PW.html:

American Civil Liberties Union, New Mexico Chapter
PO Box 80915 Albuquerque, NM 87198
(800) 773-5706 (outside Albuquerque)

KRQE-13's web site has a story about a new bill requiring breathalyzer ignition interlocks in every vehicle in New Mexico,
at http://www.krqe.com/expanded2.asp?RECORD_KEY%5bBig LocalAdvanced%5d=ID&ID%5BBigLocalAdvanced%5D=3 247

Date Posted: 2/17/2004 | Time Updated: 12:24:56 PM

'Breathalyzer in every car' bill passes house

Some state lawmakers are convinced they have the answer to solve
the D.W.I. epidemic and want to require everyone on the road to
take a breathalyzer test before they can start the engine of any vehicle.

Today, the proposal is one very large step closer to becoming law.

A bill requiring an ignition interlock device be installed on every car,
truck, bus or motorcycle in New Mexico passed the state house today and
is on its way to the senate.

[snip]

The bill also has perked the ears and raised concern at the local chapter
of the American civil liberties union.

"We are concerned that if you've got to sort of go through a mini search
every time you drive your car," says Reber Boult. "That's very invasive."

Welcome to my world.

As one of the tens of millions of law-abiding gun owners in this country, I have to go through a background check, and wait for government permission, every time I purchase a firearm. Such background checks could be described as "a mini search" that's "very invasive."

I don't have to do this because guns are more dangerous than cars.

There are about 220 million vehicles in the United States [1].

There are about 250 million guns in the United States [2].

From 1999 to 2001, there were 130,215 motor vehicle related fatalities, or 43,000 motor vehicle related deaths per year [3].

From 1999 to 2001, there were 87,110 firearms related fatalities, or 29,000 firearms related deaths per year.

This means there are about 20 deaths per 100,000 vehicle per year, and 12 deaths per 100,000 guns per year.

A given car or truck is 1.7 times more likely to be involved in a fatality than any given gun is. It should also be noted that, unlike automobile deaths, 60% of the people killed by gunshot wounds chose to end their own life. With an automobile, there is rarely an intent to cause death. Yet vehicles are still involved in more deaths -- both in terms of absolute numbers and per-unit -- than firearms are.

Unlike the privilege to drive, the right to "keep and bear arms" is explicitly mentioned in the Constitution. While claiming to be "neutral" on the issue of gun rights, the ACLU has stated that "If we can license and register cars, we can license and register guns [4]." While I had always hoped that the "license guns like cars" argument would lead to broader rights for gun owners (since vehicle licensing and registration is actually very lenient compared to gun control laws), I shouldn't