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Why XMMS? MPD is a lot better suited to the task. There are plenty of clients to choose from to control it locally and remotely. And if you install pulseaudio with it, you can have it output to any computer in the house.

This story was retold in a MacGuyver episode, one of the better episodes.. It's worth a watch if you can find or rent it.

The more concerning issue is the major bane of jet powered flight - bird hits. At the speed they are talking about, a bird hitting this guy in the head, even with a helmet, stands a good chance of knocking him out. Then you're going to have a dead bird as well as a dead wing-rider.

No, there's a Space Pope

Or perhaps the Chaos Pope

SPACE POPE INDAHOUS

+1 Funny, good call!

Come on, mods.

Is it anything like the Space Pope?

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#Q._How_do_I_get_CHDK_onto_my_camera.27s_SD_memory_card.3F That entry and the one right after it pretty much explain everything you need to do. I think that took an entire 15 seconds to locate.

It's even easier on my A720 IS. All I had to do was to flip a few bits on my SD card with a hex editor and flip the read-only switch on the card and the camera automatically boots to CHDK. Don't want CHDK? Simply flip the SD card back to read/write. The camera ignores a read-only card and happily writes photos to it when it's locked.

I discovered CHDK while trying to find a remote trigger solution for my high altitude balloon project. After destroying three digital cameras trying to make a remote shutter, I discovered CHDK and it's UBASIC capabilities. I used a hacked-up USB cable and a simple UBASIC script to trigger the shutter from my Arduino.

Cool stuff. The HDR and RAW capabilities are incredible, for a $200 camera.

Even with the clearer guide from lifehacker, this still leaves a few issues open:
(i) its a HACK and if Canon smell it, bang goes thy warranty;
(ii) CHDK are from/in Russia - genius programmers, but nationally a poor track record on the TRUST aspect.

The first one is addressed right here on the site. And sorry, but I can't help you with your xenophobia.

I've used CHDK on my A710IS for about six months with zero problems. As many others have mentioned, it's incredibly easy to disable it, but the features that it adds are very handy.

The firmware probably isn't going to be able to get the shutter to go any faster reliably.

• RAW capture in cameras that don't normally support it (this one is huge)
• Much shorter, or longer exposure times than supported by the camera's firmware (see this page for high-speed examples)
• Zebra striping mode (highlights over/under exposed areas in real-time)
• Motion detection (which some folks have allegedly used to successfully take lightning photos)
• Adjustable video bitrate
• More adjustable ISO
• DOF calculator
• Hot pixel removal
• Adjustable grid
• Real-time histogram for cameras without
• Detailed battery life meter
• etc.

Morons with mod points; either that or Microsoft knee-jerk astroturfers.

For the learning-impaired at "news for nerds", the parent's point was that the only thing that should matter to you or me about Hans Reiser is the file system he designed and the programs he wrote, and then only if you use the damned things.

Did you throw away your Naked Gun movies because OJ Simpeon killed those people?

The tabloid mentality that seems to have overtaken the entire world makes me sick. The file system's designer's personal life is none of my (or your) business.

On a lighter note, the parent was wrong. Bill Gates doesn't strangle puppies, he shoots them! And he doesn't stomp kittens' heads, he huffs them.

This is clearly the Ancient Technology Activation gene

I did not realize open-source firmware available was available for certain Canon cameras. That's cool. Unfortunately the link you provided was broken, but I googled for it:

Wired article

link to CHDK from above article

The system can be scripted to do things such as time-lapse and very long exposures.

Excellent comment!

From Hacking My PowerShot: "I picked up a [Canon Powershot] A560 late last year -- it's a wonderfully handy point-and-shoot camera that even shoots full NTSC video..."

From the link about open source firmware you recommended: Quick answers to 7 key questions about CHDK: "5. What extra capabilities does CHDK provide? Enhanced ways of recording images ... for video images you can have increased recording time and length (1 hour or 2 GB), and a greatly increased range of compression options."

The problem will be that there needs to be enough light. There could be motion detection lights in several places. If a thief is moving around at night, and suddenly there is a bright light, that changes the psychology of the situation. Very likely the thief will leave. If he or she doesn't you will have a video recording.

It seems to me that lights that turn on when motion is detected are the first best defense. That and signs that say, "Smile, your visit is being recorded."

Remember that the obvious camera can be a dummy. The real cameras can be hidden.

I meant to give this URL for the "open source firmware" link. I must have messed it up somehow:

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_in_Brief

One way of making progress is to start up a blog thread announcing this (potential) project and asking who's interested -- Recording Industry vs. People is would be a great spot for it. Circulating this through the blogosphere would gauge interest, and get various perspectives on the right technology base (a wiki, a CMS, etc.). Hey, maybe you could even get it on Slashdot :-)

By the way, for people interested in campaigns like this, there's an all-day workshop on education and activism on social networks on May 22 as part of this year's Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference.

violent pedophile sex offender puppy killer watch list

Oh look, a picture!

Export Control laws http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/Export_controls/, let me introduce you to them.

Even more burdensome is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act/ since, unlike as is the case with Export Control laws and would be the case with the proposed legislation discussed in the article, you can't check against a government-maintained Red Flag list but rather each company has to pay for development of its own Red Flag list.

If some West Virginia kid comes into a retail store and buys a pallet of old-style Sudafed, the retail store is durn well going to be held responsible (in most US states) when the DEA busts him for making meth.

"Its in the corner of North America, and mostly empty, except, of course, for all the fail." ~ Oscar Wilde on Where Canada is, and what its filled with.

Canadian map of the world, eh?

If I linked to the Uncyclopedia entry on the UK I'd be modded down. If I linked to the uncyclopedia entry on the US I'd be shot. If I linked to the uncyclopedia entry on Australia I'd be drunk.

Since when have lawyers used their brains? Here's the most ridiculous example of so called trademark infringement.
To summarize-There's a Star Wars character called Nomi Sunrider, that was created at some point in the 80s. Jeep, the vehicle manufacturer, sued them for trademark infringment because they make a line of soft top vehicles called Sunrider !!
How is anyone ever going to confuse a vehicle with a fictional character from Star Wars?
But guess what? Jeep won the case, and so Lucas Arts was unable to use the same character in KOTOR 1 and 2.

Since when have lawyers used their brains? Here's the most ridiculous example of so called trademark infringement.
To summarize-There's a Star Wars character called Nomi Sunrider, that was created at some point in the 80s. Jeep, the vehicle manufacturer, sued them for trademark infringment because they make a line of soft top vehicles called Sunrider !!
How is anyone ever going to confuse a vehicle with a fictional character from Star Wars?
But guess what? Jeep won the case, and so Lucas Arts was unable to use the same character in KOTOR 1 and 2.

Since when have lawyers used their brains? Here's the most ridiculous example of so called trademark infringement.
To summarize-There's a Star Wars character called Nomi Sunrider, that was created at some point in the 80s. Jeep, the vehicle manufacturer, sued them for trademark infringment because they make a line of soft top vehicles called Sunrider !!
How is anyone ever going to confuse a vehicle with a fictional character from Star Wars?
But guess what? Jeep won the case, and so Lucas Arts was unable to use the same character in KOTOR 1 and 2.

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/SPISPOPD

Considering the NAME of the chip is RSD5, I was expecting thatsnomoon. Just one more feather in the cap for Sienar Fleet Systems. Next it'll be levitating laptops off your lap entirely, though some may find their lack of weight disturbing.

d) The paper was written by the scientists that don't get invited to "those kinds of parties."

"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin. (Rather ironic - but perhaps Budweiser hadn't been invented yet.)

And he ate an IBM computer in 1967. His pics have been vilely removed from Wikipedia, but are on the Street wiki: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Cookie_Monster

I'm quite inclusionist (see my user page), but I can see one good argument for deletionism: Wikipedia doesn't have enough editors to keep our articles in good condition as it is, and having a separate article about every episode of every notable television show ever broadcast would spread our workforce far too thin. As it is, a lot of our articles about popular culture are (to put it politely) in need of improvement.

On the other hand, I contend that Wikipedia's notability standards for things which do not get much mainstream media coverage (eg., webcomics, blogs) are also in need of improvement.

What someone should do is set up a wiki (or, better yet, a whole bunch of wikis) for pop-culture topics. Then people who want to write about Star Trek, the Narnia books, etc, etc could create as many articles as they want. Oh, wait.

Deletionism - or at least, less inclusive activity - is a tendency that I think grows over time. Wikipedia's idea of quality takes some time to sink in, but after one too many edit wars, you learn to appreciate sources, and become wary of those articles lacking them - and this often includes pages of an inclusive nature. Of course, some people just don't like Pokemon, or furries, or Star Wars mucking up their encyclopedia. But that's fine - we can take our business elsewhere.

Someone else commented "The solution to this mess would seem to be to trash everything unsourced or transwiki it to a place that doesn't care about reliability, but that's not going to happen."

It's happening. Wikia, which is Jimbo Wales' commercial operation, is the other place that "doesn't care about reliability". Wikia claims to be an encyclopedia and a search engine, but all they are is a hosting service for fancruft. They have the Star [Wars|Trek|Craft|Gate] wikis, the Yu-Gi-Oh wiki, the Marvel Comics wiki, and similar popular culture. They even have fan fiction. They don't have much else. The machinery is the same as Wikipedia, but the standards are far lower. Wikia has ads, but the reader demographic lives in their parents' basement, so the clicks may not be worth much.

There's now a push on Wikia (the "WP:FICT" debate) to move the fancruft to Wikia, where Wales can try to monetize it. Wales is still involved with Wikipedia, so this is a conflict of interest. It's probably good for Wikipedia to have a place to dump the cruft, but it's troubling that the nonprofit and profit-making sides have some of the same management. The IRS may have something to say about that.

Wikipedia was done around 2006. By then, almost all the subjects worth an article had one. New articles now tend to be self promotion (garage bands, mostly), minor historical figures ("member of the Ontario parliament 1936-1938"), atlas information ("State Route 152"), or utter junk ("I rule!!!").

Wikipedia's maintenance process is labor-intensive. It's the encyclopedia anybody can trash, and a sizable, ongoing effort is required to fight the trashing. That effort increases as the number of articles goes up, which is what limits the useful size of Wikipedia. If volunteers don't keep up the maintenance, the thing will turn to mush. The right size for Wikipedia is probably below 500,000 articles.

There have actually been a fair number of sites that have appeared because of wikipedia/wikibooks excluding information. There have been tons of wikia sites created to hold all sorts of info that was deleted from wikipedia. And after wikibooks decided to delete half their content and ban most books about gaming, most of it was moved to other sites, like StrategyWiki or egamia. For other non-gaming related stuff, there's also (not sure if they could handle a /., but) WikiKnowledge, though they haven't gotten very big.

Maybe if it was spelt correctly it would've been funnier.

(and I'm not even a star wars nerd!)

CHDK is a free software package that runs on Canon compact cameras like A-series and S2 and gives RAW capability among other neat features.

From You've Got A Lot To See, performed by Brian Griffin:

Our flashy cell phones make people mumble,
"Gee whiz- look how important he is, his life must rule!"
You'll get a tumor, but on your surgery day
The doc will see it and say, "Wow, you must really be cool!"

That was a Jedi Master and member of the Jedi Council.

She's not a Twi'lek she's an adolescent Togruta.

She's not a Twi'lek she's an adolescent Togruta.

Except that Han brings it up in the cantina in response to Obi-Wan's question about whether it's a fast ship.

Wookieepedia confirms your explanation of the Kessel run, but that's a retcon that tries to justify Han's statement without taking in context.

Also, in the upcoming Force Unleashed game, you play as a female sith.
Umm, no according to The Wookieepedia the main char is a Human Male done by the guy who played LT in the first season of Battlestar Galactica. Anyways, during the previous cartoon network Clone Wars, there was Sidious, Tyranus, and the chick who tries to kill Anakin, so they apparently don't hold fast to the two and only two rule.

"In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were REAL men, women were REAL women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were REAL small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri." - HHGTTG

Unfortunately, you'd find it tricky to get within range, as all relevant conventions are fully booked until December. European furry convention organizers are being hard-pressed to keep up with increasing demand, despite significant expansion in the last few years.

Well I would fix the following things: http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/us_corporation.htm http://www.teamlaw.org/control.htm http://www.commonlawvenue.com/Summaries/02-eliminate_taxes.htm http://whatreallyhappened.wikia.com/wiki/Tax_Protection http://whatreallyhappened.wikia.com/wiki/Church_Legal_Protections There's another one I found but I have since lost about how the "law of 1812" that the District of Columbia was founded as the Corporation UNITED STATES OF AMERICA as opposed to the organic entity "united states of America" in the original documents. That this was a corporation owned by the London banks that were lending the "us government" money. And as such, the government in any kind of constitutional means ceased to exist in 1812. It technically only has jurisdiction over Washington DC. When you are asked if you are a U.S. Citizen, after 1812, you are implying that you are a citizen of DC and thus under the rules of the corporation. I will find the source and include it later. Althought IANAL... but if this is true, then I'm glad I'm not, cause they're in on it. I would definitely get to the bottom of this though.

Well I would fix the following things: http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/us_corporation.htm http://www.teamlaw.org/control.htm http://www.commonlawvenue.com/Summaries/02-eliminate_taxes.htm http://whatreallyhappened.wikia.com/wiki/Tax_Protection http://whatreallyhappened.wikia.com/wiki/Church_Legal_Protections There's another one I found but I have since lost about how the "law of 1812" that the District of Columbia was founded as the Corporation UNITED STATES OF AMERICA as opposed to the organic entity "united states of America" in the original documents. That this was a corporation owned by the London banks that were lending the "us government" money. And as such, the government in any kind of constitutional means ceased to exist in 1812. It technically only has jurisdiction over Washington DC. When you are asked if you are a U.S. Citizen, after 1812, you are implying that you are a citizen of DC and thus under the rules of the corporation. I will find the source and include it later. Althought IANAL... but if this is true, then I'm glad I'm not, cause they're in on it. I would definitely get to the bottom of this though.

For example, I get nothing but the most insightful results when searching for the likes of "George Bush" on Wikia Search.

Wikia Search is open source, it's based off of Grub (which we have already talked about before). Here's the source code to the grub Windows client, and there's a dev site too. The current scoring algorithm is over here. If you want to talk with Jimbo and the developers, hop on to mailing list and let's talk.

Anyway, it looks like there's the opportunity here to *improve* this search engine -- programmers, I know you are reading, and at least check out the code. There's been talk about running some competitions for improving the search results (the scoring algorithms), how many of us would like to form a team? Maybe I'll do one. Who's with me?

(Btw, these guys need help. I just found all of this after the recent news articles.) Screw my mod points.