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ftp ://ftp.apple.com/developer/Tool_Chest/Core_Mac_OS_ Tools/MPW_etc./MPW-GM/MPW/

Looks like it's only good for 68K, and is overall pretty weak. (See Gavin Haines' 10/99 post to Info-Mac.) But it is, in fact, a free compiler.

-Waldo

I'm thinking of using one of these (either a LART or maybe one of these) in a vacuum environment to drive some CCD cameras. I've been led to believe the StrongARM chips run a whole lot cooler than the Intel chips, but I think they're a fair bit slower as well. I'll have to figure out what sort of speed I can accept. Regards, Brian

Aint-it-Cool for wearables ?

I know just what you mean about the HTML. This whole geek-chic schtick, and the blaring HTML headlines, does nothing for having the project taken seriously by those with a functionaly dress sense. They make Kevin Warwick look restrained by comparison.

...and that "Bunuel does Clockwork Orange" image is just gross.

As I've not seen this link posted yet, take a look at Delft University of Technology and their UbiCom project. Very high bandwidth, high on-board processing power, and some neat usage of vision to do accurate position finding. It's an Augmented Reality system, so that instead of just catching data, or displaying it, it's able to accurately overlay real-world imagery with a projected virtual overlay. Their video of playing Pacman inside an empty room, with an entirely virtual maze and ghosts is wonderful.

They've also developed the LART, a chipset for embedded Linux that sadly sounds funnier than it really is. Maybe it's funnier if you read the BOFH.

Aint-it-Cool for wearables ?

I know just what you mean about the HTML. This whole geek-chic schtick, and the blaring HTML headlines, does nothing for having the project taken seriously by those with a functionaly dress sense. They make Kevin Warwick look restrained by comparison.

...and that "Bunuel does Clockwork Orange" image is just gross.

As I've not seen this link posted yet, take a look at Delft University of Technology and their UbiCom project. Very high bandwidth, high on-board processing power, and some neat usage of vision to do accurate position finding. It's an Augmented Reality system, so that instead of just catching data, or displaying it, it's able to accurately overlay real-world imagery with a projected virtual overlay. Their video of playing Pacman inside an empty room, with an entirely virtual maze and ghosts is wonderful.

They've also developed the LART, a chipset for embedded Linux that sadly sounds funnier than it really is. Maybe it's funnier if you read the BOFH.

Finally, this discussion comes to light without me having to ask it. I've been thinking about trying this for about 2 or 3 months, the problem I have is that my design seems rather novel, and I havn't seen any of the small boards/systems (like LART, TINI, TIQIT, uCLinux) that would support it hardware-wise, let alone getting the software working for it. Most of the following rant is nothing more than a pipe dream, but if you know of something to make this dream a reality, by God post it.

I envision a bifold device, about the size of a deck of cards, with rounded edges. The device flips open (either spring loaded to a set angle ala Psion, or with a friction clutch holding it at any angle), and both inside faces are LCDs with digitizers on them. The side that you hold in your hand is the input area,which can be changed to fit the application (for example, all buttons for a calculator app, or a few buttons with a writing area for a notepad app). The top half is the display area.

Two displays/digitizers may seem like a waste, but an infinitely configurable input area seems like it might be just the kind of thing to make this badboy very easy and fast to use. The other nice thing about two halves is that you get about twice the screen real estate, as well as a measure of screen protection. Additionally, the bottom half in the hand, with the top half above, allows you to write while resting your writing hand against the holding hand, which would make input more natural (i.e., just moving the wrist, as opposed to the whole arm I envision this system using Quikwriting as the primary input method, but implemetning other software would also be necessary, especially the stuff with the input area and receiving input. I could imagine that a writing area with four general buttons would be the default, and a special call would be executed to change this, that way, only programs that need to have a different input method would have it. Other programs could act as if they were receiveing input from a keyboard.

I already have the case design in my head (at least the design for individual manufacture). The problem I've run into is the lack of suitable hardware. Some of the devices listed above are small enough, but do not include any way (that I can see) of having a configurable input area that is separate from the display screen.

I am a Mechanical and Biomedical engineer by training, so most of the aspects of specialized hardware implementation are beyond me, and I have been looking into using pre-built boards and stuffing them into a novel case (which my training does let me specialize). So I ask you, fellow /.ers, "what do you think?" Am I a deranged loon, or does an idea like this have some merit (if not, I'll still want to build one for myself)? Can anyone offer me guidance for hardware and even some software? Anyone want to help build one?

--Copyright, 2000 by WhyCause (just in case something pans out)

And besides the "Palm-plus-expansion-board"-stuff from uclinux, there's the LART as a research project and the upcoming Yopy (see below).

It may only be the first PDA being shipped with Linux. So let's forgive the misleading emphasis:-) But they definitely have to do something about the "system requirements" for the Desktop Partner. vtech.com states: "Microsoft Windows® 95 or Windows® NT Workstation" :-( But netcraft says their webserver is running apache on BSD:-)

On the plus side: 8 MB of SDRAM, plus 2 MB flash for operating system and applications for about $179 against $157 for the Palm IIe with it's 2MB (using http://computers.cnet.com/ list prices, since I haven't seen the Helio being shipped in europe (anyone?)).

But, as stated in another comment, they have to go a long run with Palm being something like a de facto standard (besides the "Windows powered" stuff:-). And, don't forget the Samsungs studies for a "hi end" GNU/Linux-powered PDA: The Yopy. 32MB RAM, 32MB(64MB) Flash Memory and a 206MHz ARM RISC 32bit Microprocessor.

So, I'm not that convinced that "The Helio may make a break for the running of the PDA-of-choice-for-Linux-geeks yet".

Do a search on "GNUtella" on freshmeat and you'll find several projects. By the way, acceptance of a protocol lies by no means in its simplicity, but in its functionality, quality, security and speed.

The idea is really cool, but dude, I totally disagree on your choice of vodka. Smirnoff's the ripoff; you'll want real Russian vodka such as Stolichnaya. Any decent bar that I frequented recently ([1], [2], [3] and [4]) has it. Smirnoff tastes even worse when it's warm, but of course that might just be me.

Cheers,
the Apocalyptic Lawnmower

IBM first introduced this amazing product into OS/2 with version 2.2. At that point they made openDoc fully integrated into the Presentation Manager. This meant that for apps that supported it, you could just drag the appropriate part of the document from one app to another. Formating was largely automatic. Very nice and very killer.

Unfortunately, IBM has become a slave to MicroSlob and well, you can see for yourself where OS/2 is.

KOffice is probably going to be a "nice" office collection, but it will be just another office app. Nothing special, unless . . .

BTW: I don't do C++, I do objective C.

Eval kits and other cheap devices have always been my savior. Not the $3K ones that some companies dish out (ick), but in the $100-300 vein.

The uCsimm has already been mentioned, and that is based on the Dragonball (MC68EZ328) just like the Palm. You can get an ARM evaluation board that has a 25MHz ARM implementation from Sharp (LH77790B) for about $150. The URL.

Both of these have all sorts of logic already on board, such as serial ports, LCD controllers, timers, yada yada. The uCsimm runs uClinux (again, as mentioned before), and the ARM eval. board can run eCos, a product of Cygnus^H^H^H^H^H^H Red Hat. Both CPUs are supported by gcc, so no having to deal with weird third-party compilers. eCos is a little rough around the edges, but it might be sufficient for what you need.

Advantech has a fair selection of x86 hardware of all different shapes, sizes, colors, textures, and flavors. Their use in portable applications is questionable at best... (Where did Transmeta go?!?)

There is also the LART, which is a StrongARM-based board, but they aren't sold pre-assembled, so it is a DIY job. And unless you have the facilities to do boards with surface-mount components, it would be rather difficult to accomplish solo. I would have one were it not for that one wrinkle.

You can do web searches on things like "embedded processor", "microcontroller", "digital signal processor" and find other eval kits (maybe even reasonably-priced ones!). There are plenty out there.

Yes, all you have to do is make a special adapter to go from the 4 pin serial port on the 48 to a regular D9, and from there to a modem! I've actually used it to log into a shell and check my email in pine, but for the best effect you have to set up the terminfo on the remote machine for the small screen and almost no support for VT-100 etc. Pretty simple stuff. A friend of mine actually spent a day on IRC that way. We couldn't tell except that he typed kinda slow.

is a good place to get a terminal emulator, and http://www.hpcalc.org/docs/faq/ 48faq-12.html#ss12.2 is a good place to start for information about the adapter you need.

PS: also note that it's been possible to do this (ie: the info has been available) on the HP48 for several years now. Those TIers are just playing catch-up!

Actually, I'd really like to have hardware schematics for my computer. If someone were to manufacture a LART I'd buy one just for the sake of having the schematics. (Also darn useful for robotics, I'd expect.)

As is hardly news, it's possible to sell Free Software, RMS has been doing it for a very long time (selling tapes of emacs, for example). RedHat is a newer example of the same.

Not only that, but we found out yesterday that some Netherlanders have done it before:

http://etv.et.tudelft.nl/commissies/lustrum/englis h.html

They claim to have the Guinness Book of World Records record for largest tetris building game.

Anyone want to look it up?

Sorry to interrupt this nice article, but this has been done before in the EE dept of Delft University, The Netherlands. It was hosted by the Electro Technische Vereniging and it was held on a 22 floor building. For a few nice shots:
http://etv.et.tudelft.nl/commissies/lustrum/englis h.html

Someone needs to mention SLab here http://dutw1288.wbmt.tudelft.nl/ websites kinda slow but well worth checking out.It wants to be an audio suite.

Yawn... Old hat. Can't you slashdotters have a look at history? Otherwise, you'll be condemned at repeating it... badly.

First, a brief word about ekranoplanes (a.k.a. Wing-In-Ground effect). Here is an actual picture of such a beast in flight (Gerry Anderson fans will be delighted by this one). They have been around for almost 40 years, having been devellopped in the defunct Soviet Union . You may look at this page for historic information, as well as pictures of enormous ekranoplanes as well as the 400 ton Lun ICBM launcher . For those who worry about greenhouse gas emissions, there is also a pedal-powered WIG !!! Oh, yes, those craft are already covered by a Canadian regulation, proof that they've been around long enough to rouse the attention of regulators...

Now, about trains. Nothing really new, there either.

In the 1960's, french engineer Jean Bertin (1917-1975) pursued the développement of his ill-fated Aérotrain , which, 30 years before the recently-canned german Transrapid maglev, almost reached the realization stage (both in a commuter rail line betwen Paris and the western sububurb of Cergy, and a line between Lyon and Grenoble for the 1968 winter Olympic games). Bertin's Aérotrains ran on a single inverted T concrete rail, and used a cushion of air for sustentation. An early prototype, the Aérotrain expérimental 02 (which looks like it was inspired by this), reached the speed of 400 km/h in 1966 and 422 km/h in 1969 (not an impressive achievement, since at that time, the rail speed record was achieved in 1955, when an ordinary locomotive pulling four totally normal cars reached the speed of 331 km/h on a perfectly standard railroad line). More pictures are available here.

Despite that, Jean Bertin built more prototypes, and a 20 km long rail line (which still runs accross the countryside, completely abandoned) on which a much bigger "train", which ran not much faster than today's TGVs do (note that the record certificate is issued by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale , and not the Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer ...).

Bertin's Aérotrain technology almost got selected in place of the current TGV, but at the last minute, State support was withdrawn from the Société Bertin. The Aérotrain (and any other newfangled guided transportation system such as maglevs and monorails - we're in the real world, here, not in Disneyland) suffered most from gross incompatibility with existing rail lines (necessary to enter the core of cities) and an extremely heavy implementation of switches, which precludes their widespread use and thus reduces the flexibility of their rail networks.

Jean Bertin never recovered from the shock of losing State support; he died a few months later, despite having built a prosperous engineering company which still thrives in high-technologies.

Throughout the Aérotrain's history, the French National Railroads (SNCF)'s attitude was extremely interesting. Despite all the media hoopla that surrounded the Aérotrain and the political interest, it did not say anything at all. Not a single word either for or against the Aérotrain was uttered in official french railroad circles. But during that time, the SNCF worked hard at perfecting what is seen today as the epitome of high-speed travel technology, the TGV.

So, it is quite safe to say that this oldfangled flying "train" will certainly not fly very far, because the theorical speed limit of ground travel, the speed of sound, is within reach of conventionnal steel-wheel-on-steel-rail technology, which without much pain, ran at 515,3 km/h on May 18th 1990 (gee! Almost 10 years ago!!!).

(What is the speed of sound at 20C at sea level anyway???)

--

Yawn... Old hat. Can't you slashdotters have a look at history? Otherwise, you'll be condemned at repeating it... badly.

First, a brief word about ekranoplanes (a.k.a. Wing-In-Ground effect). Here is an actual picture of such a beast in flight (Gerry Anderson fans will be delighted by this one). They have been around for almost 40 years, having been devellopped in the defunct Soviet Union . You may look at this page for historic information, as well as pictures of enormous ekranoplanes as well as the 400 ton Lun ICBM launcher . For those who worry about greenhouse gas emissions, there is also a pedal-powered WIG !!! Oh, yes, those craft are already covered by a Canadian regulation, proof that they've been around long enough to rouse the attention of regulators...

Now, about trains. Nothing really new, there either.

In the 1960's, french engineer Jean Bertin (1917-1975) pursued the développement of his ill-fated Aérotrain , which, 30 years before the recently-canned german Transrapid maglev, almost reached the realization stage (both in a commuter rail line betwen Paris and the western sububurb of Cergy, and a line between Lyon and Grenoble for the 1968 winter Olympic games). Bertin's Aérotrains ran on a single inverted T concrete rail, and used a cushion of air for sustentation. An early prototype, the Aérotrain expérimental 02 (which looks like it was inspired by this), reached the speed of 400 km/h in 1966 and 422 km/h in 1969 (not an impressive achievement, since at that time, the rail speed record was achieved in 1955, when an ordinary locomotive pulling four totally normal cars reached the speed of 331 km/h on a perfectly standard railroad line). More pictures are available here.

Despite that, Jean Bertin built more prototypes, and a 20 km long rail line (which still runs accross the countryside, completely abandoned) on which a much bigger "train", which ran not much faster than today's TGVs do (note that the record certificate is issued by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale , and not the Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer ...).

Bertin's Aérotrain technology almost got selected in place of the current TGV, but at the last minute, State support was withdrawn from the Société Bertin. The Aérotrain (and any other newfangled guided transportation system such as maglevs and monorails - we're in the real world, here, not in Disneyland) suffered most from gross incompatibility with existing rail lines (necessary to enter the core of cities) and an extremely heavy implementation of switches, which precludes their widespread use and thus reduces the flexibility of their rail networks.

Jean Bertin never recovered from the shock of losing State support; he died a few months later, despite having built a prosperous engineering company which still thrives in high-technologies.

Throughout the Aérotrain's history, the French National Railroads (SNCF)'s attitude was extremely interesting. Despite all the media hoopla that surrounded the Aérotrain and the political interest, it did not say anything at all. Not a single word either for or against the Aérotrain was uttered in official french railroad circles. But during that time, the SNCF worked hard at perfecting what is seen today as the epitome of high-speed travel technology, the TGV.

So, it is quite safe to say that this oldfangled flying "train" will certainly not fly very far, because the theorical speed limit of ground travel, the speed of sound, is within reach of conventionnal steel-wheel-on-steel-rail technology, which without much pain, ran at 515,3 km/h on May 18th 1990 (gee! Almost 10 years ago!!!).

(What is the speed of sound at 20C at sea level anyway???)

--

Yawn... Old hat. Can't you slashdotters have a look at history? Otherwise, you'll be condemned at repeating it... badly.

First, a brief word about ekranoplanes (a.k.a. Wing-In-Ground effect). Here is an actual picture of such a beast in flight (Gerry Anderson fans will be delighted by this one). They have been around for almost 40 years, having been devellopped in the defunct Soviet Union . You may look at this page for historic information, as well as pictures of enormous ekranoplanes as well as the 400 ton Lun ICBM launcher . For those who worry about greenhouse gas emissions, there is also a pedal-powered WIG !!! Oh, yes, those craft are already covered by a Canadian regulation, proof that they've been around long enough to rouse the attention of regulators...

Now, about trains. Nothing really new, there either.

In the 1960's, french engineer Jean Bertin (1917-1975) pursued the développement of his ill-fated Aérotrain , which, 30 years before the recently-canned german Transrapid maglev, almost reached the realization stage (both in a commuter rail line betwen Paris and the western sububurb of Cergy, and a line between Lyon and Grenoble for the 1968 winter Olympic games). Bertin's Aérotrains ran on a single inverted T concrete rail, and used a cushion of air for sustentation. An early prototype, the Aérotrain expérimental 02 (which looks like it was inspired by this), reached the speed of 400 km/h in 1966 and 422 km/h in 1969 (not an impressive achievement, since at that time, the rail speed record was achieved in 1955, when an ordinary locomotive pulling four totally normal cars reached the speed of 331 km/h on a perfectly standard railroad line). More pictures are available here.

Despite that, Jean Bertin built more prototypes, and a 20 km long rail line (which still runs accross the countryside, completely abandoned) on which a much bigger "train", which ran not much faster than today's TGVs do (note that the record certificate is issued by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale , and not the Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer ...).

Bertin's Aérotrain technology almost got selected in place of the current TGV, but at the last minute, State support was withdrawn from the Société Bertin. The Aérotrain (and any other newfangled guided transportation system such as maglevs and monorails - we're in the real world, here, not in Disneyland) suffered most from gross incompatibility with existing rail lines (necessary to enter the core of cities) and an extremely heavy implementation of switches, which precludes their widespread use and thus reduces the flexibility of their rail networks.

Jean Bertin never recovered from the shock of losing State support; he died a few months later, despite having built a prosperous engineering company which still thrives in high-technologies.

Throughout the Aérotrain's history, the French National Railroads (SNCF)'s attitude was extremely interesting. Despite all the media hoopla that surrounded the Aérotrain and the political interest, it did not say anything at all. Not a single word either for or against the Aérotrain was uttered in official french railroad circles. But during that time, the SNCF worked hard at perfecting what is seen today as the epitome of high-speed travel technology, the TGV.

So, it is quite safe to say that this oldfangled flying "train" will certainly not fly very far, because the theorical speed limit of ground travel, the speed of sound, is within reach of conventionnal steel-wheel-on-steel-rail technology, which without much pain, ran at 515,3 km/h on May 18th 1990 (gee! Almost 10 years ago!!!).

(What is the speed of sound at 20C at sea level anyway???)

--

Yawn... Old hat. Can't you slashdotters have a look at history? Otherwise, you'll be condemned at repeating it... badly.

First, a brief word about ekranoplanes (a.k.a. Wing-In-Ground effect). Here is an actual picture of such a beast in flight (Gerry Anderson fans will be delighted by this one). They have been around for almost 40 years, having been devellopped in the defunct Soviet Union . You may look at this page for historic information, as well as pictures of enormous ekranoplanes as well as the 400 ton Lun ICBM launcher . For those who worry about greenhouse gas emissions, there is also a pedal-powered WIG !!! Oh, yes, those craft are already covered by a Canadian regulation, proof that they've been around long enough to rouse the attention of regulators...

Now, about trains. Nothing really new, there either.

In the 1960's, french engineer Jean Bertin (1917-1975) pursued the développement of his ill-fated Aérotrain , which, 30 years before the recently-canned german Transrapid maglev, almost reached the realization stage (both in a commuter rail line betwen Paris and the western sububurb of Cergy, and a line between Lyon and Grenoble for the 1968 winter Olympic games). Bertin's Aérotrains ran on a single inverted T concrete rail, and used a cushion of air for sustentation. An early prototype, the Aérotrain expérimental 02 (which looks like it was inspired by this), reached the speed of 400 km/h in 1966 and 422 km/h in 1969 (not an impressive achievement, since at that time, the rail speed record was achieved in 1955, when an ordinary locomotive pulling four totally normal cars reached the speed of 331 km/h on a perfectly standard railroad line). More pictures are available here.

Despite that, Jean Bertin built more prototypes, and a 20 km long rail line (which still runs accross the countryside, completely abandoned) on which a much bigger "train", which ran not much faster than today's TGVs do (note that the record certificate is issued by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale , and not the Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer ...).

Bertin's Aérotrain technology almost got selected in place of the current TGV, but at the last minute, State support was withdrawn from the Société Bertin. The Aérotrain (and any other newfangled guided transportation system such as maglevs and monorails - we're in the real world, here, not in Disneyland) suffered most from gross incompatibility with existing rail lines (necessary to enter the core of cities) and an extremely heavy implementation of switches, which precludes their widespread use and thus reduces the flexibility of their rail networks.

Jean Bertin never recovered from the shock of losing State support; he died a few months later, despite having built a prosperous engineering company which still thrives in high-technologies.

Throughout the Aérotrain's history, the French National Railroads (SNCF)'s attitude was extremely interesting. Despite all the media hoopla that surrounded the Aérotrain and the political interest, it did not say anything at all. Not a single word either for or against the Aérotrain was uttered in official french railroad circles. But during that time, the SNCF worked hard at perfecting what is seen today as the epitome of high-speed travel technology, the TGV.

So, it is quite safe to say that this oldfangled flying "train" will certainly not fly very far, because the theorical speed limit of ground travel, the speed of sound, is within reach of conventionnal steel-wheel-on-steel-rail technology, which without much pain, ran at 515,3 km/h on May 18th 1990 (gee! Almost 10 years ago!!!).

(What is the speed of sound at 20C at sea level anyway???)

--

Yawn... Old hat. Can't you slashdotters have a look at history? Otherwise, you'll be condemned at repeating it... badly.

First, a brief word about ekranoplanes (a.k.a. Wing-In-Ground effect). Here is an actual picture of such a beast in flight (Gerry Anderson fans will be delighted by this one). They have been around for almost 40 years, having been devellopped in the defunct Soviet Union . You may look at this page for historic information, as well as pictures of enormous ekranoplanes as well as the 400 ton Lun ICBM launcher . For those who worry about greenhouse gas emissions, there is also a pedal-powered WIG !!! Oh, yes, those craft are already covered by a Canadian regulation, proof that they've been around long enough to rouse the attention of regulators...

Now, about trains. Nothing really new, there either.

In the 1960's, french engineer Jean Bertin (1917-1975) pursued the développement of his ill-fated Aérotrain , which, 30 years before the recently-canned german Transrapid maglev, almost reached the realization stage (both in a commuter rail line betwen Paris and the western sububurb of Cergy, and a line between Lyon and Grenoble for the 1968 winter Olympic games). Bertin's Aérotrains ran on a single inverted T concrete rail, and used a cushion of air for sustentation. An early prototype, the Aérotrain expérimental 02 (which looks like it was inspired by this), reached the speed of 400 km/h in 1966 and 422 km/h in 1969 (not an impressive achievement, since at that time, the rail speed record was achieved in 1955, when an ordinary locomotive pulling four totally normal cars reached the speed of 331 km/h on a perfectly standard railroad line). More pictures are available here.

Despite that, Jean Bertin built more prototypes, and a 20 km long rail line (which still runs accross the countryside, completely abandoned) on which a much bigger "train", which ran not much faster than today's TGVs do (note that the record certificate is issued by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale , and not the Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer ...).

Bertin's Aérotrain technology almost got selected in place of the current TGV, but at the last minute, State support was withdrawn from the Société Bertin. The Aérotrain (and any other newfangled guided transportation system such as maglevs and monorails - we're in the real world, here, not in Disneyland) suffered most from gross incompatibility with existing rail lines (necessary to enter the core of cities) and an extremely heavy implementation of switches, which precludes their widespread use and thus reduces the flexibility of their rail networks.

Jean Bertin never recovered from the shock of losing State support; he died a few months later, despite having built a prosperous engineering company which still thrives in high-technologies.

Throughout the Aérotrain's history, the French National Railroads (SNCF)'s attitude was extremely interesting. Despite all the media hoopla that surrounded the Aérotrain and the political interest, it did not say anything at all. Not a single word either for or against the Aérotrain was uttered in official french railroad circles. But during that time, the SNCF worked hard at perfecting what is seen today as the epitome of high-speed travel technology, the TGV.

So, it is quite safe to say that this oldfangled flying "train" will certainly not fly very far, because the theorical speed limit of ground travel, the speed of sound, is within reach of conventionnal steel-wheel-on-steel-rail technology, which without much pain, ran at 515,3 km/h on May 18th 1990 (gee! Almost 10 years ago!!!).

(What is the speed of sound at 20C at sea level anyway???)

--

Yawn... Old hat. Can't you slashdotters have a look at history? Otherwise, you'll be condemned at repeating it... badly.

First, a brief word about ekranoplanes (a.k.a. Wing-In-Ground effect). Here is an actual picture of such a beast in flight (Gerry Anderson fans will be delighted by this one). They have been around for almost 40 years, having been devellopped in the defunct Soviet Union . You may look at this page for historic information, as well as pictures of enormous ekranoplanes as well as the 400 ton Lun ICBM launcher . For those who worry about greenhouse gas emissions, there is also a pedal-powered WIG !!! Oh, yes, those craft are already covered by a Canadian regulation, proof that they've been around long enough to rouse the attention of regulators...

Now, about trains. Nothing really new, there either.

In the 1960's, french engineer Jean Bertin (1917-1975) pursued the développement of his ill-fated Aérotrain , which, 30 years before the recently-canned german Transrapid maglev, almost reached the realization stage (both in a commuter rail line betwen Paris and the western sububurb of Cergy, and a line between Lyon and Grenoble for the 1968 winter Olympic games). Bertin's Aérotrains ran on a single inverted T concrete rail, and used a cushion of air for sustentation. An early prototype, the Aérotrain expérimental 02 (which looks like it was inspired by this), reached the speed of 400 km/h in 1966 and 422 km/h in 1969 (not an impressive achievement, since at that time, the rail speed record was achieved in 1955, when an ordinary locomotive pulling four totally normal cars reached the speed of 331 km/h on a perfectly standard railroad line). More pictures are available here.

Despite that, Jean Bertin built more prototypes, and a 20 km long rail line (which still runs accross the countryside, completely abandoned) on which a much bigger "train", which ran not much faster than today's TGVs do (note that the record certificate is issued by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale , and not the Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer ...).

Bertin's Aérotrain technology almost got selected in place of the current TGV, but at the last minute, State support was withdrawn from the Société Bertin. The Aérotrain (and any other newfangled guided transportation system such as maglevs and monorails - we're in the real world, here, not in Disneyland) suffered most from gross incompatibility with existing rail lines (necessary to enter the core of cities) and an extremely heavy implementation of switches, which precludes their widespread use and thus reduces the flexibility of their rail networks.

Jean Bertin never recovered from the shock of losing State support; he died a few months later, despite having built a prosperous engineering company which still thrives in high-technologies.

Throughout the Aérotrain's history, the French National Railroads (SNCF)'s attitude was extremely interesting. Despite all the media hoopla that surrounded the Aérotrain and the political interest, it did not say anything at all. Not a single word either for or against the Aérotrain was uttered in official french railroad circles. But during that time, the SNCF worked hard at perfecting what is seen today as the epitome of high-speed travel technology, the TGV.

So, it is quite safe to say that this oldfangled flying "train" will certainly not fly very far, because the theorical speed limit of ground travel, the speed of sound, is within reach of conventionnal steel-wheel-on-steel-rail technology, which without much pain, ran at 515,3 km/h on May 18th 1990 (gee! Almost 10 years ago!!!).

(What is the speed of sound at 20C at sea level anyway???)

--

Yawn... Old hat. Can't you slashdotters have a look at history? Otherwise, you'll be condemned at repeating it... badly.

First, a brief word about ekranoplanes (a.k.a. Wing-In-Ground effect). Here is an actual picture of such a beast in flight (Gerry Anderson fans will be delighted by this one). They have been around for almost 40 years, having been devellopped in the defunct Soviet Union . You may look at this page for historic information, as well as pictures of enormous ekranoplanes as well as the 400 ton Lun ICBM launcher . For those who worry about greenhouse gas emissions, there is also a pedal-powered WIG !!! Oh, yes, those craft are already covered by a Canadian regulation, proof that they've been around long enough to rouse the attention of regulators...

Now, about trains. Nothing really new, there either.

In the 1960's, french engineer Jean Bertin (1917-1975) pursued the développement of his ill-fated Aérotrain , which, 30 years before the recently-canned german Transrapid maglev, almost reached the realization stage (both in a commuter rail line betwen Paris and the western sububurb of Cergy, and a line between Lyon and Grenoble for the 1968 winter Olympic games). Bertin's Aérotrains ran on a single inverted T concrete rail, and used a cushion of air for sustentation. An early prototype, the Aérotrain expérimental 02 (which looks like it was inspired by this), reached the speed of 400 km/h in 1966 and 422 km/h in 1969 (not an impressive achievement, since at that time, the rail speed record was achieved in 1955, when an ordinary locomotive pulling four totally normal cars reached the speed of 331 km/h on a perfectly standard railroad line). More pictures are available here.

Despite that, Jean Bertin built more prototypes, and a 20 km long rail line (which still runs accross the countryside, completely abandoned) on which a much bigger "train", which ran not much faster than today's TGVs do (note that the record certificate is issued by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale , and not the Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer ...).

Bertin's Aérotrain technology almost got selected in place of the current TGV, but at the last minute, State support was withdrawn from the Société Bertin. The Aérotrain (and any other newfangled guided transportation system such as maglevs and monorails - we're in the real world, here, not in Disneyland) suffered most from gross incompatibility with existing rail lines (necessary to enter the core of cities) and an extremely heavy implementation of switches, which precludes their widespread use and thus reduces the flexibility of their rail networks.

Jean Bertin never recovered from the shock of losing State support; he died a few months later, despite having built a prosperous engineering company which still thrives in high-technologies.

Throughout the Aérotrain's history, the French National Railroads (SNCF)'s attitude was extremely interesting. Despite all the media hoopla that surrounded the Aérotrain and the political interest, it did not say anything at all. Not a single word either for or against the Aérotrain was uttered in official french railroad circles. But during that time, the SNCF worked hard at perfecting what is seen today as the epitome of high-speed travel technology, the TGV.

So, it is quite safe to say that this oldfangled flying "train" will certainly not fly very far, because the theorical speed limit of ground travel, the speed of sound, is within reach of conventionnal steel-wheel-on-steel-rail technology, which without much pain, ran at 515,3 km/h on May 18th 1990 (gee! Almost 10 years ago!!!).

(What is the speed of sound at 20C at sea level anyway???)

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As has been said in previous comments, the Wing In Ground effect is something that has actually been known about for some time. (The first evidence came from the Pilots of early Dornier flying boats.) I have found a site that deals with this effect, and the aircraft that have exploited it at:- http://www.io.tudelft.nl/~twai o/edwin/html/index.htm

Alright... let me start debunking:

(a) the ground effect is a very well understood phenonomenon, much more so than MAGLEV. In fact, the Russians/Ukrainians have built massive WIG aircraft, that were probably gonna be used for rapid troop landings. A quick Google finds this page.

(b) WIG has nothing to do with turbulence. In effect when a wing is closer to the ground, the space between the underside of the wing and the ground acts as a nozzle, i.e. increases air pressure much more so than the wing can do by itself (roughly 2x). Increased air pressure => higher lift (although I am over simplifying here).

(c) You don't have to have a large wingspan to take advantage of the ground effect. It just so happens, that when you fly slow, you can't produce as much difference in air pressure with a small wing, so you need a large one (again, I am over simplifying, but close enough). I.e. if you have lots of small wings, like these Japanese are trying to do, you're gonna get pretty much the same effect.

(d) The pterodactyles did not use the WIG effect... I mean come on, do you ever see illustrations of pterodactyles soaring at 2' off the ground? ;-)...

I personally think this is a very interesting idea. Maglev is cool and all, but this can work just as well. If I had to find a weak spot it would be the total cost of ownership (TCO) of these things versus a Maglev train... with a maglev, electromagnets may cost more at installation, but after that you're pretty much done spending. OTOH, aircraft (particulary aircraft *engines*) are notoriously expensive to maintain...


engineers never lie; we just approximate the truth.

It's pretty old, but contains interesting thoughts about Open Design Circuits as they call it, and has a number of good links to other sites about Open Design/Open Hardware

It's pretty old, but contains interesting thoughts about Open Design Circuits as they call it, and has a number of good links to other sites about Open Design/Open Hardware

I posted a link to Open Design Circuits a while back. Maybe these guys should get together?

I saw the result of the measurements done by the Dutch radioastronomers , that even made it to CNN and the campus newspaper (in Dutch ;-) , and, as predicted, there was no signal there. Just a stripe in a nearby frequency that could be anything...

I did not see the following ones, where they would try to point to another spot on the sky and check for the same signal again, and try to prove its Earthly origin ...

You can see the radiotelescope here , the staff, and the equipment, but the data analysis was done afterwards at the university. They managed to produce some extremely cool plots but no traces of the lander. :-(

I saw the result of the measurements done by the Dutch radioastronomers , that even made it to CNN and the campus newspaper (in Dutch ;-) , and, as predicted, there was no signal there. Just a stripe in a nearby frequency that could be anything...

I did not see the following ones, where they would try to point to another spot on the sky and check for the same signal again, and try to prove its Earthly origin ...

You can see the radiotelescope here , the staff, and the equipment, but the data analysis was done afterwards at the university. They managed to produce some extremely cool plots but no traces of the lander. :-(

Profit and the contribution of IP to the community at Transmeta, Rehdat/Cygnus, VA, Corel, etc. is NOT mutually exclusive so long as the timing is right. Everyone who believes in open-source needs to earn a living and sometimes that means keeping things proprietary in the short-term; wouldn't Bob really be forced to eat his words if Transmeta did "open-source" its technology: chip designs, patents etc. Not only would Metcalfe be proven wrong but the philosophy itself will be proven right-- yet again.

A. Wait

Profit and the contribution of IP to the community at Transmeta, Rehdat/Cygnus, VA, Corel, etc. is NOT mutually exclusive so long as the timing is right. Everyone who believes in open-source needs to earn a living and sometimes that means keeping things proprietary in the short-term; wouldn't Bob really be forced to eat his words if Transmeta did "open-source" its technology: chip designs, patents etc. Not only would Metcalfe be proven wrong but the philosophy itself will be proven right-- yet again.

A. Wait

Wave editor, cut/copy/paste/fade/reverse/etc, n-undo backout edit support, sample loop previewing, freehand wave painting, zero cross detection, metronomic bar/beat and SMPTE frame selection editing.

Full tape spooling with location memories, SMPTE counters. Up to 16 IO channels (8 Stereo devs), with IO noise reduction processing, audio data compression to disk, audio metronome, micro-adjustable speed, punch in/out. TCL/TK 8.0 based "drag and drop" user interface. MultiProcessing/shared memory mix engine.

Kernel requires SYSV_IPC, OSS/Linux 3.9.2m/k2.0.35 advised for full duplex.

Does anyone know if there is any midi integration into the audio direct to disk functionality? I had a quick scan, but couldn't find any immediate information on the official web site.

Go shopping online and try to find printers listed as supported. Then do some Dejanews searches on the (count 'em on one hand) models both currently available and supported.

I actually prefer choice to its opposite. Tell me again why you can't see the problem in this area.

If you are a woman, Steffl, I'd say beware! you have a self-respect problem and your standards are unhealthily low: you could find yourself married to a batterer and unable to find the motivation to leave him before it's too late.

Hacked up drivers are better than nothing and I do appreciate (beyond words) the work people put into these, but it's really time to stop taking silence as an acceptable answer from Epson, HP, and Umax. We need to get in their face and get product support from them now. Not one driver yet from these fucks --& to my knowledge that's some kind of record. Every other area has at least one manufacturer who does drivers, releases source, something...these ppl think their special???

Or even better: TTA's, the ultimate RISC. A TTA is a transport triggered architecture and specifies datatransports with operations as a sideeffect, (instead of the other way around). So instead of

add r3, r1, r2

you do

mv r1 to add_unit
mv r2 to add_unit
mv add_unit_result to r3

True, 3 opcodes instead of one, but how simple!
And if you put a lot a parallel transportbusses in the chip, let's talk about really more parallelism, lookahead features and pipelining!

It's the logical step after CISC, RISC and VLIW!

[shamelessplug]Our project[/shamelessplug]

There's a famous cryptogrophy code out there, I forget the name of it, but the story is this: someone discovered it (it came in three pieces), and supposedly cracked the second piece, which explained the first and third pieces of the code would tell him where some rich treasure was. The second piece of the code was coded by using numerical values standing for the number of letters into a document, in this case the document (he claimed he discovered) was the US Constitution (so, the 10th letter in "We the people of the United States..." would be 'l').

Perhaps Red Hat could take up Debian's "psuedo-CD-image" system, which allows the bulk of the work of providing CD images to be done by servers that have the distribution as a bunch of files, not as a CD image.

This is one of the best ideas I've ever come across. This program fetches all the files that will appear on the CD and simply concatenates them all. It then uses the "rsync" incremental-update protocol with the CD image servers to convert this concatenated file into a CD image: since much of the data that appears in the image is already on the client's machine the load on the CD image server is only 6% of what it was.

With this system in place, we can all start burning official CD images without slashdotting the mirrors too badly. I think it's a piece of bloody genius!
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Could be. The US goverment always tries very hard to stay in charge of US built machines, even when they are sold to the outside world.

There was a big problem when researchers from Iran wanted to use the Cray T3E at Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands.

The US goverment forced Cray to try to stop Delft University from letting those Iranians use the machine or else.. (I don't know what their threat was orwhat happened).

The problem with all this was that it is against the first article of our constitution (which prohibits discrimination upon race, religion, etc.) to deny access to certain university employees.

Not according to the Chiplist

that subject isn't that new to me. Not that I participated in it, but at our dept. we have a long-running project on it:

http://www.kbs.twi.tudelft.nl/Research/Projects/IS FER/

Have fun,
the Apocalyptic Lawnmower

I have had problems with some MP3's under OS/2. There's a utility (for OS/2) called UNCOOK that fixed the problem. I suspect some incoding software puts bogus info in the MP3 file and UNCOOK takes it out.

I tracked down a few versions:

OS/2

Unix/Linux

DOS

winblows