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This is, technically, big brother - it is the technology to make this process cheaper (the process is already possible and available to anyone - just stand on a corner and collect information).

There is no big reason to fear this any more than there is reason to fear the fact that the phone company has a record of every phone call you've ever made. They have, undoubtedly, used that information internally in research projects to form network diagrams and could very well do the 6-degrees game if they felt so inclined.

I can see how it might be profitable to know where I've been, and where and when I might not be at home/work/etc. This will certainly cause me to think more about personal security. But it won't shed light on any activities that I don't want people to know about.

In small towns everyone knew about everyone else, and still kept quiet and were civil - within reason - because they all had to live together. I think this notion of "public privacy" where one should be able to go to the store without anyone knowing is a relatively new desire, and quite frankly many, if not most, fears of losing it are overblown.

But think about the possibilities if this technology - I'll call this "public neutrality" where I, as an endpoint user of the public space am not restricted from what I can and cannot record and analyze.

I've been thinking about this technology for some time. What I'd like to have is a HUD, this license plate reader, and an internet connection. Then we simply need to develop CML - car markup language.

Above every car messages about that car from other drivers are displayed, not unlike photo tags.
Litterer
Doesn't signal
Has gun
Tailgater
Cell phoner stoner
Plain stupid
etc.
Then we can do the same with facial recognition systems.

Use GPS, a 3 axis magnetometer, and a 3 axis accelerometer and you can mark up buildings and other physically stationary objects.

Then - and this is the next cool bit - you build all this into a flashlight. But the flashlight is actually a miniature handheld projecter. You can actually shine it around without wearing a HUD and it'll paint the tags on whatever you're pointing at for everyone else to see. You could print the "loser" on someone's forehead.

Of course, I've just described several patentable ideas. They are now public domain, assuming they have not yet been applied for. So go out and make them already!

In the rare chance that someone needs to use this as prior art in 10-20 years, contact me at http://ubasics.com. If you want me to build them, contact me sooner.

And if someone is curious about where my car is or has been for the last while, no need to spend thousands of dollars on cameras, just check out my tracking system. (please note that it is active only during testing periods. Go back a few thousand points and you'll find my trip to Georgia and Alabama. Let me know if you can determine which of my relatives I visited and how I'm related - that would be interesting detective work.)

-Adam

This is, technically, big brother - it is the technology to make this process cheaper (the process is already possible and available to anyone - just stand on a corner and collect information).

There is no big reason to fear this any more than there is reason to fear the fact that the phone company has a record of every phone call you've ever made. They have, undoubtedly, used that information internally in research projects to form network diagrams and could very well do the 6-degrees game if they felt so inclined.

I can see how it might be profitable to know where I've been, and where and when I might not be at home/work/etc. This will certainly cause me to think more about personal security. But it won't shed light on any activities that I don't want people to know about.

In small towns everyone knew about everyone else, and still kept quiet and were civil - within reason - because they all had to live together. I think this notion of "public privacy" where one should be able to go to the store without anyone knowing is a relatively new desire, and quite frankly many, if not most, fears of losing it are overblown.

But think about the possibilities if this technology - I'll call this "public neutrality" where I, as an endpoint user of the public space am not restricted from what I can and cannot record and analyze.

I've been thinking about this technology for some time. What I'd like to have is a HUD, this license plate reader, and an internet connection. Then we simply need to develop CML - car markup language.

Above every car messages about that car from other drivers are displayed, not unlike photo tags.
Litterer
Doesn't signal
Has gun
Tailgater
Cell phoner stoner
Plain stupid
etc.
Then we can do the same with facial recognition systems.

Use GPS, a 3 axis magnetometer, and a 3 axis accelerometer and you can mark up buildings and other physically stationary objects.

Then - and this is the next cool bit - you build all this into a flashlight. But the flashlight is actually a miniature handheld projecter. You can actually shine it around without wearing a HUD and it'll paint the tags on whatever you're pointing at for everyone else to see. You could print the "loser" on someone's forehead.

Of course, I've just described several patentable ideas. They are now public domain, assuming they have not yet been applied for. So go out and make them already!

In the rare chance that someone needs to use this as prior art in 10-20 years, contact me at http://ubasics.com. If you want me to build them, contact me sooner.

And if someone is curious about where my car is or has been for the last while, no need to spend thousands of dollars on cameras, just check out my tracking system. (please note that it is active only during testing periods. Go back a few thousand points and you'll find my trip to Georgia and Alabama. Let me know if you can determine which of my relatives I visited and how I'm related - that would be interesting detective work.)

-Adam

I have an OBD-II scanner. It's about $100 or so, hooks up to my laptop, and the software is free and the codes in the software are frequently updated. I've never had a code in my car that's undocumented.

The interface is simple, there are now only 5 protocols and interfaces that need to be supported by any given ISO compliant scan tool (ISO9141, PWM, VPW, Keyword, and CAN). These protocols and interfaces are available for a huge fee from ISO and other standards organizations.

There is enough information online and in various electronics magazines to interface without getting the standards, but the real problem is that there are only so many well-defined codes. Every car supports those. But each new model the manufacturers add more codes that are manufacturer, and sometimes even model, specific.

The vast majority of the codes are available, what this legislation does is make it so that when a new code is defined for a specific make/model/year, then it's instantly published. Even now you have to wait a year or 5 before the codes come out because warranties take care of the vast majority of work. Its the heavy use customers, and the shady dealerships that make it necessary to have the codes as soon as the model is available, but the dealerships and manufacturer have every incentive to not provide the information in a timely manner.

This legislation is to codify what, how, and when to release this information, whereas now the auto industry has tried to avoid regulation by volunteering incomplete and late information.

There is one open hardware project to support one of the protocols, and some open software to support the hardware, but it still leaves out 1/2 of the vehicles, and doesn't cover more than one car.

I've been working on making a completely open, compliant hardware and software product to comply with all the current standards and allow easy updating of codes. I have access to the standards, hardware, and only lack time and money. Hopefully within the next two years we'll see $20 code scanners with online code lookup (hardware is actually fairly easy) but assuming we don't, email me about the interest and I may move this from the back burner. I still have two projects in the pipeline that have to be finished, but I could have something before the end of the summer if there is significant interest. It would have to be fully open hardware/firmware/software.

-Adam

Ah, so you're a Windows user. Why the hell do you care what the rest of us call our OS then? What has it got to do with you?

Anyway, I'm bored so I'll have a look at your site.

Hello...

While I am frustrated by the speed and limitations of Visual Basic, I have found it to be a competant language. The bulk of my programs are therefore written in VB 6.

Bwahahahaha! It's a good thing we have you around to make the fine distinction for us between an app and the OS. And that's compet*e*nt by the way.

You may place the URL of this site, and any HTML page (.htm, .html, .shtml) within this site, on any medium provided that the URL is listed in a non-derogatory manner.

So me saying that your site is a pile of crap is not allowed?

Images, CGIs and files other than HTML on this site may not be referenced directly on your site without permission of Adam Davis.

Oops!

Ah, so you're a Windows user. Why the hell do you care what the rest of us call our OS then? What has it got to do with you?

Anyway, I'm bored so I'll have a look at your site.

Hello...

While I am frustrated by the speed and limitations of Visual Basic, I have found it to be a competant language. The bulk of my programs are therefore written in VB 6.

Bwahahahaha! It's a good thing we have you around to make the fine distinction for us between an app and the OS. And that's compet*e*nt by the way.

You may place the URL of this site, and any HTML page (.htm, .html, .shtml) within this site, on any medium provided that the URL is listed in a non-derogatory manner.

So me saying that your site is a pile of crap is not allowed?

Images, CGIs and files other than HTML on this site may not be referenced directly on your site without permission of Adam Davis.

Oops!

For all those wailing "Like, WTF?" and "This isn't worth it!" I'll say this once:

Well duh. Do you think we don't understand the value of time, space, and money and can't do an investment/return calculation?

This is cool because they can do it. It's on Slashdot because lots of us think it's nifty to turn a 2.2GHz processor into a 4+GHz processor.

Yes, it does cost more, take more space, and more time to set up than two 3GHz machines, or even a dual processor 3GHz.

But it's like my high school instructor telling me 10 years ago that making a microcontroller controlled light dimmer is non-trivial. I did it then, and it requires fewer than 25 lines of assembly code on a simple microcontoller. Was I geeked when I finished? You bet.

People are constantly trying to break records, and this is no exception. The higher the record is set, the more effort and resources must be put in to beat it.

-Adam

Why is it becoming harder to post on slashdot? 4/5 of the time I get an incomplete page when I press submit or preview.

For all those wailing "Like, WTF?" and "This isn't worth it!" I'll say this once:

Well duh. Do you think we don't understand the value of time, space, and money and can't do an investment/return calculation?

This is cool because they can do it. It's on Slashdot because lots of us think it's nifty to turn a 2.2GHz processor into a 4+GHz processor.

Yes, it does cost more, take more space, and more time to set up than two 3GHz machines, or even a dual processor 3GHz.

But it's like my high school instructor telling me 10 years ago that making a microcontroller controlled light dimmer is non-trivial. I did it then, and it requires fewer than 25 lines of assembly code on a simple microcontoller. Was I geeked when I finished? You bet.

People are constantly trying to break records, and this is no exception. The higher the record is set, the more effort and resources must be put in to beat it.

-Adam

Why is it becoming harder to post on slashdot? 4/5 of the time I get an incomplete page when I press submit or preview.

The first thing that came to mind was RFID. If you have each child wear a watch with an RFID unit, then you can detect who is at or near the door. If there's no RFID unit, the door stays locked.

Of course, you'll have the same problem here that you have with other methods - the autistic child will learn and understand what makes it work, and the other children may not be responsible enough to make sure he doesn't have access to their watches (or whatever article of clothing you may attach the RFID to).

You can train the other children that if their watch opens the door for him then their priveledges of moving freely (ie, having a 'working' watch) will be limited for a period of time. They will learn to protect and secure their watches after a time.

The underlying issue, though, is that you cannot protect one child and completely free the others from the same protection. It's obviously an ideal for you to do so, and inexpensively, but it's simply not going to happen. Raising a child is not just a parental responsibility/burden, but a family one. As much as you'd like to keep them from bearing such a burden, it is unaviodable.

Since your autistic child cannot speak well, you may want to look into voice recognition technologies. Children are very flexible, and your other two children should learn very quickly to be able to say a simple phrase that will unlock the door for a period of time. You can change the phrase as frequently as needed to prevent your second child from learning it, but not so quickly that your other children tire of learning the phrase so often.

This can be done on the cheap, and coupled with another method, such as RFID or a keypad, could work very well. Microsoft has a free speech SDK which allows one to develop fairly robust speech applications (both talking and listening) with tools as simple as Visual Basic. Since it's a simple windows API, you could probably even use perl or another language you already know to interface with it. The API is built into XP and later, the SDK is freely downloadable from their website and will install the runtimes necessary for win9x if needed.

You might even consider a 'turing test' type of system. Put a few hundred very simple questions in the system. They press a button, it asks them the question, and they give an answer. Since the speech program as speaker independant, it should be fairly robust. You'll need to choose your questions carefully, and change them from time to time. It can be thought of as a teaching tool, even. Make sure the questions are simple enough that you don't have to program too many possible 'right' answers (put 5 pictures on the screen - ask what color the bird is type of thing).

This question intrigues me. I'd be interested in the final solution - or if you need help with any hardware (and possibly software) issues I may be able to do so. You can find my email address at my website http://ubasics.com/adam/electronics/.

Good luck!

-Adam

What I thought on this topic a few years ago:
A well regulated militia

Don't bother asking for the source of the statistics I used - I used to be able to google for it, but it's long since gone. Remember to create a bibliography for all your documents, even the unimportant ones, folks!

-Adam

It sounds like you don't want to shell out the money to do it properly (ie, this computer and proper monitoring hardware is going to cost more than a computer with the hardware built in), so here's a few suggestions:

Hook some thermisters (resistance varies with temperature) to the joystick input - it can support 4 of them. Hook fan speed outputs to some divide by ten ICs and then put that output on the joystick buttons. You've got a complete temperature monitoring unit then!

CPU votlages are a bit trickier. If you understand how the joystick port works you can use some cmos switches (or more crudely relays) and resistors to read the voltages with the joystick port as well.

Alternately, you can learn how to program a microcontroller which hooks up to a serial port (or even ISA) and that can do everything for you. I use PIC microcontrollers - cheap and easy to obtain, program and use... My PIC site.

-Adam

If companies know that we can trivially and legally circumvent their "control" schemes, they won't bother with them in the first place. And that's what open standards are all about.

So, essentially, the author is claiming that open standards exist only because any closed standard is going to be opened forcefully, and companies are just going to give in?

Some minds are like cement - thoroughly mixed and permanently set.

-Adam

"Honk if you've never seen a bazooka fired out a car window."
Web developer:
Resume

You will likely never be able to compete with even Dell on price - but you won't normally be selling all-in-one system boards, will you? That's what Dell and others sell in order to lower their cost. You need to know that the parts and systems you sell are of better quality than those provided "off the shelf" from a cookie-cutter manufacturer. If you don't believe it (sounds like you don't) then your customers won't, and they'll go elsewhere.

Networking and connections count for far more than advertising. If you can't make it as a small business without advertising, you may as well choose another line of work.

Many customers want cheap. Most customers want cheap. Take the time to explain the difference between cheap and inexpensive. You sell inexpensive equipment. The computer they showed you in the ad is cheap. (not always the case, make sure you know what you're talking about)

Customer!=client. A customer will walk in, purchase, and walk out. A client will call you for every need that is computer related. Maintain client relationships. A computer company can make money selling computers for only so long, this is where you get your clientelle from. After everyone who is going to buy from you has bought from you you will live off repeat business. Expect and plan for a finite number of customers, and work from day one turning them into clients.

Distributers such as Ingram Micro, D and H, Infotel, Tech data, etc don't mind working with smaller customers. You can sell inexpensive good quality parts as a small store, you'll just have to tell clients (customers won't understand this) that often parts will take a day (or two at the most) to get, and if they want something immediately then the part will likely be more expensive (ie, you run to another computer store to get it - they don't mind you doing this even though it does cost more - if you have developed the client relationship then they would rather work with you and through you so they will only have one point of contact for all their needs and problems) And, of course, distributers like these will give you what you need to offer MSN and other rebates as well, so you CAN offer the $400 MSN rebate, if that's what they want - I try to steer people away from MSN and AOL as it increases my own support (MSN and AOL both routinely claim "it's a computer problem" when, in fact, it is an internet service problem (ISP))

KEEP ACCURATE RECORDS. Your company will die a horrible bloody death otherwise. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING.

Consider the entire life cycle of a computer system. Customers will not want to spend much, so suggest that they upgrade their old computer - replace the motherboard, CPU, memory and it costs a fraction of a new system.

-Adam

Web developer:
Resume

Grow their own 'large' business (and thus lower their service/support)
or

Offer a unique service, fit into a niche.

Otherwise people are just going to buy the cheapest. You generally can't offer cheap unless you have a large customer base, and few employees which generally means inferior service.

But then there's the whole other issue of what you feel service is. Large corporations can afford a multi-tier approach to service, and that is what generally is best for the majority of clueless users. It pains us because we know that everytime we call we have to go through 2-3 tiers before we get someone who knows as much as we do. Sure, we could get better service, but we would be paying more, and guess which most of us geeks choose: Good service/Low price?

-Adam

Saving the world one CR/LF at a time.
Web developer:
Resume

First, the note from someone about geothermal use in alaska concerns mainly the use of it as an open loop. You suck water from an underground well, lake or other natural resource into your system, extract heat/insert heat, and then dump it back into the ground (drain, well, lake, etc). Many geothermal systems (If not most) are closed loop, and do not touch underground aquafers (rivers, wells, lakes, etc) and so are considered much less of a danger to the environment, and therefore suffer fewer regulations.

I've not dealt directly in geothermal energy, but I've studied it through the years. It has a low user base, and is very expensive initially (it almost always pays for itself in under 1/2 of it's lifetime). It falls under a lot more regulation than gas/electric systems for several reasons, but mainly that it involves tearing up land, burying pipes (which may or may not leak), and is still considered expirimental by the general public (ie, go to a town meeting and few people will understand that it is a good, safe, well tested method). It should also be kept in mind that the gas and electric companies encourage this extra regulation, and the misconceptions about price/performance/maintenance/etc.

-Adam

Trepanning? I need that like I need a hole in my --- Hey...wait a minute!
Web developer:
Resume

Well, to answer your second question, yes - you are too paranoid.

I won't answer the first though, you are asking the wrong question. You can try to find the 'perfect' or 'best' country to live in, but once you get there you'll find they have many of the same problems, as well as many different problems. It probably evens out in the end. You might try asking, instead, "What country has laws and problems which suit me and my lifestyle the best?"

Of course, that's still not a good solution to the fundamental problem you are having. Chances are you are really asking, "How much can I get doing as little as possible?" Your post didn't seem to indicate that you are doing (or want to do) anything to improve your situation. Your first thought was, "I don't like it here, let's see if there's someplace else I can go to where I don't have to work at my own security and happiness." Too many people are apathetic (emphasis on the latter 8 characters) about their surroundings.

You are human! You are master of your fate (as long as you aren't infringing on other's fate ;-). If you don't like your surroundings, if your surroundings are forcing you to change then you need to take control! Change your surroundings for once. Humans are one of the few creatures on this earth that change their environment instead of letting it change them. Does the trash on the city street bother you? Pick some up and throw it away whenever you go out. Does it bother you that the internet may be taxed in the near future? Make sure the people YOU helped elect know what your position is (and make sure you know theirs!).

The only time a human has good reason to move is if 1) the oppressive conditions are non-controllable or 2) there is a significantly better (and more easily adaptable) environment elsewhere.

You might be surprised how much control each state, county, city, township, etc has over your area (and how much control you have over them). I doubt you know. You should visit their meetings, find out what issues they have to deal with. Become involved. You can't fight an enemy you haven't studied, and, trust me, you'll be fighting different enemies in other countries. You'll just be fighting on their turf and in their language and culture. You may find it easier to mold your current environment to your needs than to find the perfect environment, or mold a foreign one to your needs.

-Adam

Ten loud voices are heard more readily than ten thousand silent voices. Don't be silent!
Web developer:
Resume

It's not trivial, but there is enough information out there that a suitably proficient hobbyist could do it. I would if I had time.

If anyone REALLY wants this done, perhaps you can motivate me. Email me and ask me to do it. Send me money, a used laptop, or some other motivator. :-)

-Adam
My website (electronics, PIC uControllers, etc)

So, what part of my statement makes you think that I don't know what a militia is? The statement I made is a fact. Were you to leave out the first 4 words of the second amendment, you completely change the meaning of the amendment. I don't know what you were thinking when you read my statement, but it looks like you tried to see some sort of hidden meaning. There is no hidden meaning in my statement, no doublespeak, nor writing between the lines. Take it or leave it, it is a true statement.

-Adam

Marriage is love.
Love is blind.
Marriage is an institution.
Therefore, marriage is an institution for the blind.

If you really want to know what I think about the modern usage of the second amendment, go here. But this thread is completely off topic. Please send flames directly to me.

Anyone who honestly believes that violent games don't encourage violent tendencies is lying to themselves.

But one cannot say that video games alone are what is causing people to murder other people. It takes years of careless crafting by unloving parents to create a real killer. I suppose some people are more disposed to violence than others. In that case the video game can be the straw that breaks the camel's back, but the real problem in this society is that parents are not raising their children well.

See more of my views here: Who is Raising Our Children?

-Adam

What's done to children, they will do to society.

I put a lean copy of the text here

http://ubasics.com/adam/commodity.shtml

Enjoy!

-Adam

I put a copy of the text of the article here

http://ubasics.com/adam/commodity.shtml

Enjoy!

-Adam