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While you can get short racks fairly cheap (small cube like 19 inch racks), for around $50.00 - surplus, and it is possible to build your own rack system, here is a solution, that while not standard size, might be something interesting to try.

Take a trip down to Walmart (or K-Mart, sometimes Target). In the hardware section, look for steel shelving. Walmart sells these shelves (by the seashore?) that are made out of the flimsiest damn steel you can imagine. Pick the right day, and you might be able to pick some up for $12.00 a box. The shelves are about 42" high, 30" wide, and 12" deep, generally with 4 shelves. Supposedly, each shelf can hold around 200 lbs. Now, putting them together is a bitch, because they are very flimsy, until you get them tightened up. Once tight, though, they are damn strong. I bought six of them earlier in the year, used 1.5 to build an almost "double-high" shelf, set them side by side (3 tall shelves), anchored them to the wall (and to each other), and filled them with books - excellent bookshelves!

The same could be done to hold computers (or even just bare motherboards, using risers/standoffs to keep the boards from shorting out on the shelves), just more shelves per shelf (since the shelves are spaced far apart in a regular configuration). You will generally end up with leftover parts, which might be useful elsewhere. Sometimes, they package the boxes wrong, and give you extra parts (normally, you get extra parts - though I would imagine it would be possible to end up with fewer parts in a box as well). These shelves are el-cheapo, the boxes may be mangled, the parts may be drilled wrong or bashed/bent - but you get what you pay for, and all you have to do in most cases is break out the power tools and do some bashing to get it all to fit.

Add some back and side panels, and a large piece of plexiglass to the front for a "custom" look - cut holes in the top and stick some 120VAC muffin fans in for ventilation (you might have to drill holes in the intervening shelves for proper airflow, or replace them with something else).

Hell, I have talked enough on this that I might try it myself. I honestly think you could build just about anything with these shelves - they are excellent!

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

A Harlan Ellison (sp?) classic, actually. An excellent read, IMO, though it only takes a little while to get through (few hours if you are a normal reader)...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

On some military cable channel (can't remember what channel it was, but it like CNN for .mil) - anyhow, they showed the thing lift off, hover, slide sideways, then land upright.

I was fuckin' amazed!

The feeling I got was we had done something that until that point was a dream in science fiction. I am certain that I felt (in a smaller way) to what some people felt about the televised moon landing.

I never knew until today that the machine was that big - I thought it was actually a smaller prototype that flew - was it full size? Or was that the smaller prototype (quite possibly, I imagine)?

It angers me to know that we have turned our backs on something so promising...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Glove type input devices never caught on because they were never meant to be used when you could still see your hand - they were meant to be used when wearing an HMD for immersive work, when one would normally be moving most of the body anyway.

The problem was the same as using a mouse for drawing on the screen - can it be done? Yes. Is it the optimal tool? No.

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Thanks for the input.

What you say makes sense - we have two A/Cs, like I said, so maybe I can convince my GF to do the shutdown thing on the one in the back of the house, and leave the other one running, or get that timer like you said also (I might look into the cost of getting a couple of electronic thermostats)...

Thanks again!

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

The first thing I drew in kindergarten was a picture of a UFO. What is strange to me about this is that I don't have any recollection of seeing any images of "UFOs" before this, either on TV or in a book or somesuch...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

I just didn't like Dr. Seuss books...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Sue me - I suck at spelling - I think it is rather funny that you point this out - I have had the sig running for quite a long time, yet you are the first to point it out.

I will change it immediately, thanks for the update...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

But isn't this assuming that the AC is on all the time, rather than being switched on and off via a thermostat?

Why would the electric company (even in CA) tell you to turn your A/C up when you are not home, rather than off, to conserve electricity? I mean, if what you say is true, then why don't they tell you to turn it completely off (outside of the fact that they want to make money)?

I actually don't have the choice to turn it completely off (maybe the back rooms), because our small animals would die in the summer...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Not crunched for time at all...

I could just see what utterly useless pap Dr. Seuss was. The first book I remember being "introduced" to was a science encyclopedia my parents got in the mail - they knew I liked building toys and such, so they showed it to me, and I read that thing nearly cover-to-cover, so they got me more like it (always asking my input on whether it was something I would like to read). Later they got a set of encyclopedias (Brittanica - not a cheap set to get), mainly for school work. Any other kinds of book wanted to read, I could pick out from the bookstore or elsewhere.

Don't get me wrong - my reading interests weren't all reference, nor did I read only "adult" oriented books - I read my share of children's novels. I just enjoyed the kind of books that had more than 10-15 pages, and more words than pictures. For those books that had pictures, I vastly preferred pictures that at least looked like a real setting, rather than a complete candy-coated strange-ass drug-induced fantasy land (and if you look at Dr. Seuss in this light as an adult, perhaps that is why some adults are fascinated by his work...perhaps).

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

You may be right, but in all honesty...

I have always hated Dr. Seuss...

I'll never forget the way my teachers in grade school (around 1st-2nd grade) treated me: They wanted me to read the stupid Dr. Seuss books, and other kid books - rather than let me read the ones I could see I wanted to read - Science Experiment books, Alfred Morgan electricity books, books on space and technology, computers, etc. - Telling me those were for the "older" children, only (like, WTF? I might learn something? What the hell am I going to learn about "Green eggs and ham, Sam I am"? How to read? I already knew how to do that, unlike my lamer peers!)...

Thank the gods my parents had some sense, and bought me both a science and a regular encyclopedia for me before I turned 6 years old...

That, and plenty of Lego...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Actually, it works OK in larger houses too - my GF and I live in a very large house out here (unfortunately not a solar home - that is my dream and ideal house, something which should be standard out here, but isn't) in Phoenix, and we have 2 (!!) large A/C units on the house, it is so big - we simply close the curtains on the large windows, and turn up the back room area and leave the other up a little higher than normal, but not as high as the back room (otherwise our guinea pigs would roast) - so we normally have both A/Cs at 75-77 or so, and then when we leave the back area (bedrooms) get set to about 85, and the front area is set to 78-80. We also close all the back room area doors, as well. Works out pretty good, actually...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

First, you shouldn't turn your air conditioning off, but instead turn it up (make it warmer) when you leave, then down (make it cooler) when you come home. Otherwise, it takes more energy to cool down a very hot house, rather than a slightly warm house.

Try it for a month - set your AC to 75 (or whatever is the temp you like), then when you leave the house, up it to 80-85, then back down when you come home. It isn't that bad, doesn't take long to cool down, and your electric bill will be lower.

What would be better would be room-by-room thermostats that had IR motion detectors, so that you could direct the cooling to specific parts of the house, where you are at, when you are in the area, using vent valves and such, and raise the temperature up and down based on if you are home or not. That would be much better.

Of course, what I don't understand out here in lovely Phoenix, Arizona, why people don't use solar cooling instead of A/C - it can work great if the house is built properly (read as: proper orientation of windows/walls, having a partially buried house, rammed earth construction, etc)...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

But hey, this is /. - where my opinion counts too!

Actually, I looked at all the pictures, and in only a very few of them (mostly all on the very last set) show actual "property" destruction:

Photos 28, 29 and 30 seem to show people dragging branches somewhere. With the occurrance of fire in several images, we can suspect that they are dragging them to a fire (but hey, who knows - maybe they have some crafting they need to do?)...

At least photo 53 wasn't as stupid (next time, wear a ski mask!)...

Photo 58 shows a man wielding a large piece of what appears to be wood - maybe going to throw it on a fire - or bash Mr. 61 about the shoulders, one of the two (wipe that smirk off yer face, nugget!)...

Photo 62 - Praise Stallman!!!

Photo 70 - Use the Force, Luke!!

Photo 77 - "Dude, where'd my doob go...? F*ckin' riot..."

Photo 86 - Now showing a better image of the Cydonian Face...

photos 95 and 96 show someone with another large piece of wood - probably not a picket sign. On the same page we have 99 and 101 doing more branch dragging (they must love crafting there at Purdue!)...

Photo 109 - Wow! I found a doob!

Now, it definitely looks like in Photo 150 there is a set of individuals up to no good with that mailbox - but why don't they note that the other guy (in black pants and grey vest) was involved as well? And why does that man look like he may actually be security or something?

The final page is about the only one that shows real good clear pictures of anybody causing destruction - and if you notice, most of the stuff they seem to be burning came from a DUMPSTER. They must value their trash very highly at Purdue, alright...

So, in closing - while there seem to have been some people causing havoc, and that one shouldn't blatently set fire to anything in public, I doubt $100,000 worth of damage occurred (unless they count the mailbox and the signpost - but only the mailbox seemed damaged). If those were damaged, then the individuals should have to pay retribution (include Mr. Blackpants, whoever he is). As for the others, they just seem to be bystanders, who didn't stop what was happening (and rant all you want about them not stopping it, but I would be they either wouldn't be heard, or they would be assaulted for their views, or something equally bad).

Oh, BTW, photo 49 offends me - WTF is that guy grabbing himself for? It ain't going anywhere, pal (actually, it takes more than that to offend me, but I have to admit the guy looks patently stupid making that gesture - I mean, if that guy can get a higher education, than anybody should).

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Just found out it was run on VA by themselves - that is pathetic - relatively COTS, should _NOT_ have taken this long to restore to operation!

What I was speaking of tends to happen when you work with companies like Sun, SGI, or IBM - but it is truely amazing when it takes this long for a company that built and runs the hardware to fix the problem...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

While backing up should always be done (and it probably was in this case), it may not always be the solution.

For example, what if the controller board on the drive dies?

One could say "Well, go down to Fry's and buy a new drive, slap it in and restore!", but rarely is it that simple.

You see, hardware manufacturers sometimes have maintenance contracts (and when I mean hardware, I mean the high end, "sell-yo-mamma-to-afford-it" type stuff) that stipulate that in order for the contract and warantee on the product to remain valid, you must do all service through the manufacturer.

That means when something fails, you have to call them, get them to come out when they can (at _their_ earliest possible conveniance), then they have to diagnose the problem, say "Yep, it's the hard drive alright!", then they call in to get a replacement hard drive - but maybe they don't have a spare, so it needs to be overnighted or couriered in from IBM or somewhere, then they get it, install it, verify it is working, then let you restore your data (which might take a day in itself, depending on if you send tapes out for offsite storage, and your rotation happened just before the crash, so now your tapes are in transit to storage - wait some more!).

Later in the month they send you a check for [bignum] bucks...

So, while in theory something that could have been done in a day using COTS hardware and a good admin, generally takes a ton of time when dealing with the higher end hardware. In this case, I don't think themes.org has to worry about a bill, they are probably doing a managed co-lo somewhere, and don't own the hardware. If they _do_ own the hardware, oh-boy, will they love the bill (at that point it becomes an issue whether you should stick to high-end, or go with a more COTS solution, and hope it doesn't break often under load)...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

What happened was that our ever so thoughtful local government gave a rebate for alternative fuel vehicles (and when I mean rebate, I mean BIG REBATE - like going from a $15,000 vehicle to $8,000 if if was alt-fuel), but allowed the rebate to go to those who had current cars converted, bought them converted from the mfg (the dealer stuck NG or propane tanks, left in the gas system, so you could use either).

Here was the problem - they defined the alt-fuel as being propane or NG, I don't think electrics were considered alt-fuel (maybe they were - most people bought the gasoline/propane combo vehicles, though), and did NOT allow a certain alcohol fuel (it is called J60 or something like that), which actually can work fine in certain 4-cylinder Ford Rangers and Probes, with no modifications at all.

Most of the people went for the combo vehicles - which just happened to be mostly large SUV vehicles (!!) retrofitted, you could use gas or propane/NG in them (tank sits right between the rear bumper and spare) - but most people (read: yuppies on a stick) just fill up with gas, so we end up with:

A large city of gas burning SUVs, manned by "we-don't-care-about-the-earth" yuppies-on-cellphone-assholes, who have used the system to not only get lower taxes (and probably registration fees - plus the cute AF license plates), but got a cheaper car as well! I can only hope that their erratic on-a-cell-phone-can't-drive driving style causes them to be rear ended, earning them a darwin award (fat chance it would occur - I am sure the tanks are engineered to withstand that).

I would have loved to use that alcohol fuel in my Ranger (because I could've in mine) - but I wouldn't have gotten the rebate (and the rebate would've come in handy for me, since it is a bitch to get that fuel, as it isn't widely available).

I am sure there are some who are only using propane, and loved this deal because it allowed them to really do something for the environment - kudos to them. I am just as certain that the majority just took advantage of the system to get something for nothing, and actually make the problem worse in the end (typical for Arizona).

Oh, and BTW - the rest of the taxpayers are footing the bill.

I am not saying that what you said, WPL510, isn't true - it very well may be. I just think that it really boiled down to screwing the system, and saving money by shifting the end-cost to those who can't afford a new car retrofitted with the propane tanks...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Does anyone have any information about the Farnsworth Fusor, outside of these links?

http://fus.x0r.com/
http://songs.com/philo/inde x.html
http://www.farnovision.com/

There seems to be very little information available about this man - Tesla is downright famous compared to him.

For a little background, supposedly Farnsworth (Philo T. Farnsworth - true inventor of electronic television) invented a method of creating a possible fusion reactor of sorts using a strange form of vacuum tube device that contains and accelerates electrons in a magnetic "cage" of some sort (like a mini tokamak, I guess), causing the possible end result of fusion to happen (ok, my description is probably all botched to hell, but look up and read the sites for more info)...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

So mod me down, if you must...

The article is kinda thin on details in exactly what way the aircraft acted, but basically these three events occurred:

1. Hydraulic line is severed, warning lights go off, including one on the reset button.
2. Per training, pilot hits reset button once, then multiple times.
3. The rotor pitch changes, causing the craft to inevitably crash.

Now, the article says that the hydraulics have had problems in the past... Here is my take:

In the three pieces I outlined above, two stand out as being really underdefined (or wrongly defined) in the article: Number 1, in that they don't mention what the hydraulic line controlled, and number 3, in that they make it ambiguous as to whether the blade pitch changed, or the rotor (ie, the pod) pitch changed.

The V22 is a tilt rotor craft. Say perhaps it was the pod pitch that changed, and not the blade pitch, and the hydraulics that were damaged were the ones controlling the pod tilt on one side. The reset button is hit, computer say "go into hover mode" and only one pod tilts...

See where I am going at? Perhaps what the reset button did was intentional - but the programmer assumed that both pods were working. I am not saying there wasn't a bug - somewhere along the line there was - but the way the article was written doesn't really tell what happenned...

You may mod me down - I am sure I have various things incorrect (for all I know the tilting is done with electric motors - but I doubt it)...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Actually, IIRC, this is an old typist trick (someone correct me if I am wrong):

1997 has to be typed with both hands, while l997 can be typed with one, which may be faster in certain cases (not that it is a good thing on the net)...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Well, I was thinking about sending +/- 12 Volts, then dropping the voltage down to the other levels closer to the device being used (actually, 12 and 24 volt systems are used in solar and RV applications, so it can be done). I wasn't meaning to imply that I would have a 5V wiring system. While even 12V wiring would still be pretty thick, it wouldn't be that bad. However, the conversion from 12V to anything else might not be that efficient...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Thanks for letting me know, though, AC...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

I have the mini-poster and mouse pad (the shit you can pick up at DefCon)!

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

I would pay for a Rhino Records napster in a heartbeat. Of course, the thing I really want is a Rhino Records Wrapster so I could download those funky old music videos from my youth!

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

I am not an electrical engineer, so what what I am proposing may be so much bull - can anyone give insight on the pros/cons of such a system?:

Nearly every device in the home (and office) is plugged into an AC outlet. What is the other cord generally plugged into? That's right - some form of transformer - it may be a large steel monster, or a tiny and efficient switching transformer, but in the end, nearly all of our systems use DC, rather than AC, to run.

A bit (and I would venture in certain cases) a lot of energy is wasted in the conversion of AC to DC, generally as heat. Since each device has one of these transformers, each device is wasting a bit of energy in the conversion process.

What if instead of having multiple transformers, you instead could use one (or a few) larger capacity, more efficient, transformers? Could this be done? Or would the actually be diminishing returns using this kind of system?

What if it could be done for the whole house, or floor, of a building? AC to the curb, from there, DC. Would the power losses be too big to do such a thing (ie, would the wires carrying the DC heat up too much)? I know that AC won out over DC because DC lost so much energy in long transmission routes (among other reasons) - but in the confines of a small building, would it really lose that much?

I wouldn't use such a system for large load devices (which use a lot of energy not matter what - like washers/dryers/heaters/AC/stoves/etc). But for other devices like computers, printers, network hubs, etc - it sounds like an interesting solution...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Sounds like you are describing the V1 - with a little more size information, I would be able to tell you for sure, but it does sound like the V1, which was an actual pulse jet engine from a WWII German V1 "buzzbomb", but mounted on a radio controlled "cart". The thing is huge (15-20 feet long), with the business end around 3 feet in diameter - did it have a large engine on one end driving what appeared to be a blower? Did the flame shoot out many feet?

Just from your description - that sounds about right? It also sounds like you didn't have any ear protection. I went to the Phoenix show (96?) and even with ear-plugs, the sonic noise was deafening. It is surprising you managed to keep your hearing.

BTW - as far as pulsejets are concerned, they are not pleasant to be around. Last year a small demo was given by Pauline and Co. in a warehouse in South Phoenix (ChemLab), which I helped to set up - a demo of a small (but damn powerful) pulsejet that was going to be used on a hovercraft for a future show (which was supposed to be in Phoenix, but got nixed hardtime by the PFD - thanks, bastards!). Amazingly loud! Mark told us about doing some testing runs on another pulsejet, and being around it running for about 30 minutes. He said he stopped the engine, and felt tingly all over. Soon he felt real bad - basically his nerves (from the vibration waves) had become hyper-sensitive, where the slightest noise or touch caused great pain - he said it was like this for about a week. Not fun...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

He is worried about his idea being valuable, yet doesn't want to spend any money to protect it? That doesn't even sound sane. While I realize that patenting is expensive (very expensive), if the idea is valuable enough, it is what he needs to do.

You say VC's almost never sign NDAs - that doesn't mean at least one won't, otherwise you wouldn't have prefaced that with the word "almost". I can see how a VC would balk at such a thing.

As for a lawyer and NDAs - well, if the idea is valuable enough, then a lawyer (and a VC) is going to use whatever they can to get the idea away from you, and not give you shit. People (esp lawyers and VCs) suck like that, there is a reason they call them sharks. All the lot "ethical restrictions" would do, right. Money runs it all, and they will bend you over in a second to get more.

Perhaps this individual should just open up the IP, and let EVERYONE run with it. If he can't afford to do it himself, and it is truely revolutionary, then the proper thing to do would be to make it completely public.

Finally, I don't know what your last line is supposed to mean, since I didn't get modded up at all. I am probably just being trolled by an AC, but I am far from clueless. While I will admit I have no real-world experience with patents or VC's, I do have common sense, which is why I recommended that the guy get himself to a lawyer. I just know that if the lawyer happens to be a crappy shark, he is going to be taken, hence, the use of an NDA with the lawyer.

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

I once got bored while surfing, and decided to try the phrase "Beating myself over the head with a two by four" and actually came up with a page. This was a few years back, doubt it still exists.

The one thing that I haven't been able to find is a copy of "Gates of Delerium" for the TRS-80 Color Computer 2 - a clone of Ultima that was made by Diecom Software in the mid-80's. Diecom was founded by Dave Dies, and someone else - and then went out of business with the death of the CoCo in the early 90's. I know that he now works for a company doing PDA games. It almost seems like I have the only copy, and my copy is DEAD. I spent a fair amount of money on that game, and I want to play it again... argggh!

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Patent it if you want (I have no problem with this in regard to truely novel hardware, it is software that I have problems with - such patents need to be shorter, if they need to exist at all - which I think they have some place, such as in the case of the RSA patent) - but if you require a prototype, and it is going to cost that much, have you thought about virtually prototyping it?

Virtual prototypes have been discussed for physical objects, like a "brand new cake pan" or something similar - where you model it in Autocad or whatnot, and show how it all works - sometimes it is possible to get VC money or even a patent with such an approach (use NDAs for everything though - I hope you did that with the VCs you met). If it is an electronic device, then maybe a SPICE model or similar approach will work (not sure what you would use for modeling a silicon process for say, a new chip - but I am sure it can be done - VDSL?).

I would say draw up a good NDA, go to a lawyer, have him look over the NDA, make recommendations/changes to it to make it legally strong, then have him sign it, and the discuss with him your options and what you can do...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

This is an "Ask Slashdot"?

Ok, while I can understand your frustration at not being able to find a switch to fit, it shouldn't really stop you, if you know what you are doing.

You are either using a AT or an ATX powersupply - more than likely the latter, since you say it is going to be a new PC. But let us examine each version, and what can be done:

1) AT Case/Power supply - uses a DPST switch. Simply buy one somewhere (www.allelectronics.com) and put it in! Don't fit? That's what Dremels were made for! Put it somewhere else on the case, if you have to - it is just a power switch - it doesn't need to be pretty (heck, I wish they were still on the back of the box, to keep users from turning them off easily). Replace the switch, or wire it permanantly on, and hook up an inline powercord switch, or into a switchable powerstrip. Better yet, use a UPS, and don't turn the machine off...

2) ATX Case/Power supply - in this case, the powersupply is "smart" - and is controlled by the motherboard. A header is supplied on the MB for the switch, a simple momentary contact SPST switch. A doorbell button would work fine here (hey, cool case mod - light up doorbell button for turning the power on). I have used a screwdriver to simply bridge the contacts to start ATX based PCs (not the smartest thing, but nifty in a pinch on a bare motherboard). A paperclip would suffice as well. Dremel the case to fit, or rig the switch up on the front as needed. You can't do the inline powerswitch thing like on the AT system, though it might be remotely possible if your BIOS has a setting to restart the power supply after a power failure (forced reboot), then it might be OK. Another possible case mod here (fits in with the whole rice boy theming of boxen), get one of those remote control finding remote controls - you know, the ones made by All-In-One, that have a beeper to stick on the back of the remote control (if ever there was a stupid product, this is it), and you hit the large single button on the remote to cause the beeper on the lost remote to sound, and wire the beeper to a relay, and the relay contacts to the switch contacts (thus, a remotely powered on PC - "Dude, stand back, I am about to power it on!").

Heck, if it is ATX, there are a lot of modding options available, due to its simplistic power sequence nature. Don't bust your balls looking for a switch, especially if the case doesn't cost more than $50.00 - it isn't worth it! Break out he Dremel, duct tape, epoxy and thinking cap, and go!

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Which may have been used for buzz bombs guidance systems.

The V1 "buzz bomb" (so called because of the distinct "buzzing" sound they made while in flight, due to using pulse jet engines - really, one of these has to be heard to be believed - I helped set up for a demo of one of the pulse jet engines SRL built for one of their latest machine, a hovercraft powered by four of them - bone shaking loud and hot was this engine - truely a sight to behold) was a "set-it-and-forget-it" type system.

Launch down a track, aimed on a straight vector (via a combination of the track and a gyroscopic navigational system, similar to early rockets) towards its destination (London), a timer was set on the engine throttle. Knowing the speed of the V1, the timer was set to cut off the engine when it was over the target, causing the bomb to "glide dive" in (it had wings - it was basically a pulse-jet propelled airplane with a bomb inside). In fact, RAF pilots got quite good at deflecting these bombs by flying next to them, getting a wing underneath one of the bomb's wings, then rolling their plane to "flip" the bomb into a death spiral of sorts.

All of this changed with the appearance of the V2 rockets (though navigation was still horrible, these machines being basic forerunners of modern ballistic missles - they still were effective in promoting a sense of fear among the masses of London, because they could hit anywhere, without advanced warning - they simply fell from the sky)...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Actually, they _did_ have precise enough manufacturing capability to build Babbage's machines - this has already been proven by the building of Difference Engine No. 2 at the Science Museum in London. Scientific American had an article on it, discussing how they built the parts to the tolerances specified, and the resulting machine worked excellently. Portions of the machine were built after Babbage's death, proving that it could be done (more info on this and other interesting Babbage info can be found here).

It is my opinion (shared by a lot of researchers) that Babbage failed primarily for two reasons; a) He could never "settle down" and build any one of his calculating machines, he was constantly dreaming of improvements and never committing to one design, draining his resources to the point of where they abandoned him (.com failure?), and b) his machines simply weren't practical for the time period, for their huge cost. People at the time didn't have a pressing need for enormous amounts of calculating power, that couldn't be provided for by cheaper human labor (so called later "computers"). It wasn't until the late 1800's that the need for real mechanical/electrical computing power began to be felt (look into Hollerith and the 1890 census for one take - there are others, of course, notably Lord Kelvin's Tide Predicting machine of 1876, while being analog, does demonstrate the need for mechanical models of complex computing problems - in fact, this particular use was not overtaken in any large part by digital computers until the 1950's), in fact, this was the time during which many "inventors" came forth with their own takeoffs of Babbage's machine - it should be noted that these were all portions of "Difference" engines, some original, some of Babbage's design. None were of the scale and complexity of his Analytical engine, though I believe a portion of the mill was completed by one of his sons after his death. It actually worked rather well, computing the successive sums of PI (though with errors, some tracable to machine problems, most likely spring related, but the major problem being that the input for the initial value of PI was off in one digit - thus, perhaps one of the first examples of GIGO as it relates to computers).

Thus, we have two points of failure: One, a character "flaw" (something that affects many hackers even to this day), and the second a lack of practical need.

It's too bad - his machines could have radically shaped our world...


Worldcom - Generation Duh!

I have 6 tomato plants growing out on my back porch (super beefsteaks or somesuch), each had a little blurb about propagating said plant as being against the law, yadayada.

I might just propagate them myself just to piss people off...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Building the optics to project the lcd image so that it appears to fill your field of view, and come from a distance of 5m is probably not too easy

Nor is it cheap - it can be done, look into the LEEP optics set. I am not even sure if you can still buy these optics, but the company that made them (LEEP?) sold them in the early 90's or so (I probably have a bit of info on all this at my web site - hit the link), for a VERY large sum of money ($15K? Maybe it was less, I am sure it was over $10K, though). Mind you - this was just the glass optics - you still had to provide the imaging system, and distortion system (ie, the optics distorted the image in a certain manner, you had to set your imaging system to distort it in the opposite manner, either using software or hardware, so that the image looked correct when viewed through the optics). IIRC, one company that used the optics was FAKESpace, with their BOOM system.

Also, I remember an article in an old copy (volume 14 no 3?) of Telepresence, and expensive academic publication/magazine put out by MIT press (managed to grab a couple at a local bookstore - nice mags) that had an artical detailing building your own optic system for an HMD...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Hate to reply to myself:

DOEs Concentrating Solar Power Program

More info on Solar 2

Hmm, maybe it is still operating, and I haven't passed by on the right days?

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Some people have asked why we don't generate energy with one of those things. Well, we don't use a single parabolic mirror, because it is hard to build a very large one. Instead, we use multiple mirrors all angled toward a focal point, like this:

Solar Power Tower

While the website says that it is in use, the last few times I have driven by on (on my way to my parents house in Bako), it hasn't been exceptionally bright. I remember it in the late 80's, early 90's, the top of the tower looked like it was white hot (at the focus), and when they would move the mirrors away, above the tower, you could "see" a spot of "boiling" air - it looked like the wavyness you see rippling off a hot car, from the heat refraction, but hovering at a point in mid-air. Very impressive shit.

That's not all, though - want to build such a device yourself, for cooking perhaps? Check this...

Still not enough? Want to build a "real" solar furnace?

Go here!

Have fun, and don't burn yourself!

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

...you run a backup...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

This is on anecdotal evidence, so take it for what it is worth.

At the time I ordered and had installed Cox@Home (I know, I know - it sucks, but I can't get DSL where I am at, last I checked), I firewalled it, as recommended by just about every sane individual on the planet.

When I had it installed, due to a couple of reasons I had to set up the firewall on a Windows 95 box. This box was also my GF's box, so I was a little nervous running both user apps and a firewall, but at the time I didn't have a choice.

The firewall I chose was ZoneAlarm - simple to install, admin, and best of all, free. Today I would probably choose Tiny, but that wasn't available then (and I only recently learned about it). I searched for some kind of NAT solution (the box runs 95, not 98), but came up empty handed, so I opted for a proxy server: AnalogX's Proxy. This solution worked well for quite some time, and I never had many problems (occasionally the Win95 box would freak, and I would have to reboot), except for one thing - it seemed "slow", compared to my GF's box. All the apps on my GF's box ran through the firewall, while my box ran through the proxy, then the firewall. It was all still faster than a modem, to be sure, so I lived with it, figuring that I would be using a regular firewall later, and besides, what more should I expect from a free solution...?

I always intended to set up a "real" firewall at a later point. I had thought about a Linksys router/NAT box, or possibly building it myself. Things dragged on, then recently I gained the oppourtunity to do what I wanted. I chose to build a box - to get the experience, number one, and because it was overall cheaper, plus I could expand it (unlike the Linksys router).

I chose Freesco (which is based off of LRP), because it is easy to admin, has remote admin capability (telnet and web), good documentation, and support for a ton of NICs. After getting it setup, and running it, I found out a very good thing:

Your speed is only as good as your routing software (or hardware, as the case may be)!

I guess I should've known this - it is a good lesson to learn. The majority of people don't have to worry about this on a cable modem or DSL: they only run one machine, or a wide open network (the latter can be a risky situation, IMO). I run (or attempt to) a secure home network, so having the routing capability is a must.

The speed improvement is incredible - I don't have hard numbers - but I know web page loads, mail downloads, everything is faster - much faster. So, if you are having speed issues (or you think you are), look into changing your routing/firewall software or hardware system - you may be surprised.

Now, if I could only get rid of this upload cap (can anybody point me in a good direction - heck, I would even be willing to try to spoof being the BOOTP server for the cable modem, if it would work)...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Look up information on the "Invisible Web" - islands typically untouched by search engines, where you need another site to "hop" to these nets of information - cool stuff can abound in these disconnected areas. Here are some links to get started with:

DirectSearch - Invisible Web Search

The InvisibleWeb

WebData.com - Invisible Web Search

InfoMine - Scholarly Internet Resource Collections

AlphaSearch - Invisible Web Search

IIRC, Slashdot even ran an article about this not too long ago - I think this is it, not sure...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Come on, people! Let's do it!

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

From the course syllabus...

Objectives

The Department's objectives in offering this course is to provide an introductory to the history of computation - including early computing devices and their uses, and the people who developed them.

Ideally, students who successfully complete this course will improve their understanding of how the field of computing developed and matured. They will be expected to be aware of the principal people, places, and events that shaped their profession. Such students will appreciate the broad sweep of this branch of history and be able to relate it to the social and scientific changes that were taking place during the same time frames. They will also be able to describe the concepts and show some understanding of the developments and be able to differentiate and make comparisons between them.

Additional information about a fall 1998 section of this course - namely, a collection of additional readings used to supplement the course text - is also available.

(Please note - I have "highlighted" those parts of the text which I thought gave insight toward the scope of this particular class)

I am not saying this class isn't a good class, however, judging from the syllabus alone, it seems to do just what I said could only be realisticly done; namely "skim".

It is an introductory course, not designed to give an in-depth view of the history. It seeks to only point out "principal people, places, and events", which, while these individuals are important, probably leave out a lot of minor players who made contributions to the history of computing that weren't recognized until much later, if ever (people like Jaquard, with a card controlled loom, directly influenced Babbage, and further, Herman Hollerith, who later help found IBM, which went on to make the standard 80 column punch card, which led to 80 column video displays. I am certain I am leaving out steps here, but the point is this is one known example - there are many lesser known ones, and students of the course will never know about them).

I feel that this course seeks to point students in a particular direction. Perhaps some will go further with the knowledge gained from it, but most will simply take what was said in the course as "that is all there is", and not find out more about this particular area of study.

The syllabus admits to the history of computers having a "broad sweep", something that stands out in the course of all history. I dare to think, without having taken the course, that it probably starts with Pascal's investigations and inventions (or perhaps Napier's bones for calculations), and stops at the ENIAC era, with anything after that machine being relagated to "modern" times. But the fact is a lot of investigation into logic and calculation was made long before Napier or Pascal (indeed, look at the Antikythera Mechanism for such an example), and a lot of history has been made since the ENIAC.

Alas, I fear a lot of students will never really know about it, or care.

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

First off, make sure you are using a fairly standard distro your first time out - when I was starting, I first tried a funky copy of TurboLinux , it didn't come in a box, and I was sadly disappointed with it. I then tried RedHat 5.2, and liked it alright, installed good, but never got around to really using it. I then set up a SuSE 6.3 box, and have been using that since.

I will probably try a version of Debian next time round, or maybe go with the latest SuSE. Or perhaps Mandrake - not sure at this time. SuSE 6.3 has been pretty solid for my needs. I have only patched the kernel to 2.2.14 (13 as packaged) to get my ZIP drive working proper. I have been pretty pleased.

Drop the USB thingie and get a real NIC - they can be had cheap enough (under $20).

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

I actually like David Brin's idea of sub-vocalizations, in his book "Earth". But hey, for the moment thought input and such are still science fiction, for the most part (yes, I know about the brainwave experiments being conducted).

What would actually be pretty fast would be some sort of dataglove (or maybe a video digitization system) and use a form of signing. ASL would be a pretty neat way to do input on a computer, if the computer could be taught and it could recognize the patterns fast enough. This would be easiest with the dataglove system, rather than the video capture system.

I am not sure if it would be faster than typing, though. Perhaps a new kind of keyboard needs to be developed - think of a chorded keyboard system, but using all of the keys on the keyboard, and both hands - perhaps that would be quicker (though I wonder if increased RSI would result as well). We already know the chord for "reboot" - who says other chords couldn't be devised as well (in other words, more complex than other familiar multi key inputs that are already allowed)?

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Essentially you set up the NAT'ed firewall system to listen for requests on a certain port. When it receives those requests, they are forwarded on down to a server on your internal network. The server processes the request, sends the response back to the NAT firewall, which translates it back, and sends it on to the user.

It shouldn't matter what web server you are running on that machine - but if your are running a NAT firewall system that you can't redirect ports, then that is a problem (I am sure some of the better NAT firewalls allow it - perhaps even TINY (for Windows) allows it - however, I am not certain that some of the "hardware" firewall/routers allow it (like the Linksys) or not).

You answered your own problem, I'm afraid - don't use "crappy" software (or hardware, whatever the case is). When I decided I needed a server for my bookmarks, I knew I wanted it behind the firewall. I knew that my firewall had to be able to forward the requests, so I looked and saw what my options were. I was running ZoneAlarm with a proxy server on a machine to act as my pseudo NAT system (I know it isn't, but what the hell else do you call it, other than a proxy server, I guess), but this wasn't the best solution, and it wouldn't work with what I wanted to do (plus there were a slew of other problems). I couldn't find info on whether the Linksys stuff would do what I wanted (hey, it may), so I decide to just go ahead and build my own router/firewall, run FreeSCO (based off of LRP, which will do what I want), and leave it at that.

Finally, if I didn't want a service visible to the outside world, I wouldn't hook it up to the net to begin with. Your last line is telling, though. NAT works well if you know what you want to do and how to do it. I am sure in many instances it simply doesn't play well, more than likely because the software doesn't want to communicate in a more standard manner (instead opting for something else for speed reasons, like FPSs). Maybe it isn't for you, but for my purposes I think it will work fine (and is cheaper in the long run).

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

ie I can actually write letters instead of weird glyphs that I have to memorize

Wha...?

That doesn't even make sense - you learned the alphabet, right? You are too lazy to learn a second? Actually, the Palm's glyphs are relatively easy to adapt to, from what little I have played with them. I would personally buy a Palm and fully learn it, if I had a real world use for one (actually, I am beginning to think I do, what with all the information I keep, etc).

Give it a chance, and don't be so lazy...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Yes, there are such people as cooking geeks. W&S is absolutely the best for quality small items (and some larger things - but much of that can be gotten elsewhere for less) for the kitchen. I particularly like the W&S kitchen towels - quite possibly the best kitchen towels I have ever used.

To be honest, I am not the cooking geek in my family, my GF is. But I can recognize good stuff when I see it, and generally try to get her the best that we can afford so she can make us nice meals...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

I agree with you on that NAT can break applications, but I tend to think it isn't because of NAT, per se, but rather those applications aren't coded with the possibility of NAT in mind. Obviously many other commonly used applications can go through a NAT'ed system just fine - browsers, telnet clients, FTP, email, etc. The idea that we should get rid of NAT because some applications aren't coded properly just doesn't make sense in my book.

I also agree that a regular rule based firewall would protect just as well, provided that you had the IP's - such firewalls are available cheaply or freely for both Windows and Linux (and I suspect Macs and others as well), so that isn't an issue. However, the issue (or at least it should be an issue) with "consumers" (god I hate that term) is that the providers want to charge "per-PC" connected. $5.00 per IP may not sound like much, but 10 devices later it is a chunk of change (not possible? Let's see: Your two machines, your SO's machine, your kid's machine, the fridge, the two cars - audio, etc - the three TV's - BAM! There ya go!). Even if it was only $1.00 per IP, that would still be $10.00 extra dollars a month.

Calling in from outside? That is possible under NAT, just give the access to route a specific port to an internal address. I know it is possible, because I am planning on setting up a personal bookmark server behind my NAT firewall, that I want to admin. I looked into what the LRP could do, and what various distros based on it could do, and all of them allowed this. So, in theory, it should be easily possible to route to an internal box with a properly NAT'ed system.

Your last point is simply a matter of convenience. I can see having the transparency of a single IP no matter where you are - that would be a nice thing. Not that I will ever have a laptop with wireless capability (kinda outside of my price range, and I really don't have a use for it yet), but if I did, with a NAT'ed solution I could do a couple of things - I could manually change the IP (a slight pain), or I could set up some kind of system to detect what I was attempting to use, and have it automatically change the IP for me on the fly. Unless I am running some form of server on the laptop where others would need to know my IP, there shouldn't be any real problem.

I am not saying we shouldn't use IPv6, we should. But you better bet that when it is rolled out for all the plebes and their dogs to use, the providers will charge as much as the market can stand for each and every IP address, which is one good reason why NAT should be embraced.

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

By modifying the software to keep you from fast forwarding through commercials (and probably taking a cut from the corps as well for supplying this "service").

This "upgrade" will probably also come with a "feature" to disallow you from dumping TV shows from the TV to your VCR (ahem; CRM - pesky fair use laws, damn Constitution)...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

The majority of homes - heck, I would say the majority of geek homes included - should only need a maximum of five addresses, if that. Your home network should be NAT'ed behind the firewall - after that, the network class could be damn near whatever you wanted. With the right firewall (read , a good one), you could have any addresses you wanted, or you could go the cheap route, and use the unroutable address ranges (10.x.x.x, there are two others, can't remember them off the top o' my head right now), for a NATural (in marketing-speak) firewall (heh, side note - have you noticed that is how they market the low cost firewall routers, such as the ones by Linksys? They call them natural firewalls - do they really think NAT means NATural?)...

I have a friend who lives in what I can only call a bachelor pad, who runs a cable modem with now firewalling at all, and each guy in the pad pays for their own IP. I keep trying to tell them how it would be cheaper (and better, since they run winders like mad) for them to NAT the place, but they won't do it - too hard to set up, I dunno.

The cable companies and DSL companies both have a marketing campaign to get the most bucks out of people by exploiting their lack of knowledge of networking. If they could get away with it (and I bet a lot of people are dumb enough to do it, if the telcos/cablecos could technically do it - actually, the cablecos can, they've been doing it with TVs all along) they would charge for a new line to each machine.

I hate fucking companies who prey on other's ignorance - then try to ram it down the throats of individuals who KNOW better.

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

There is just so much information, facts, articles, anecdotes, etc to cover. I don't want to be pessimistic, but the fact is I have read a TON of "History of Computers" and they ALL come up short in some respect. Some leave out important details, some contradict others.

When I say I have read histories, I mean it. I have a couple of "History of Computers" books - wait, let me grab one - - Here it is:

"COMPUTERS: The Machines We Think With" by D.S. Halacy, Jr. (Dell Books, 1962)

A very yellowed paperback, I might add. Pretty good book giving a good overview of the history and current progress (for the time) of computers. I have a ton more. Typically, what I have found to be the best "histories" of computers are books that are current for the time, showing the tech where it is at "right then".

The field is just so large - I daresay you could spend your life just gathering the information for the history, nevermind trying to organize it for printing (if it could fit in book form!). You could spend an entire book on the history of the punch card (and why the text monitor standard was 80 columns wide - they are related).

One frustrating thing you would find would be the number of dead ends - and lost data on various machines and systems. One area I have always wanted to find out more about was the hobbiest scene of the late 60s to early 70's, just prior to the invention of the 4004 - I am sure it existed, with people making their own machines from telephone relays and other equipment in their garages or basements - but there is so little to go on about such things (I have an article about how to build a telephone dialer system using simple logic circuits and a drum program system to dial a phone - a dial phone, mind you - for when a burglar breaks into your house - simple systems like that were being done, possibly more complex ones existed as well). It is hard to even find stuff from the 70's - I found one book digging through a used bookstore one how to build "The TV Typewriter" - most histories don't even mention it, but it is a big part of personal computing!

Good luck - you will need it. The best you will be able to do is skim. Perhaps let your students know this, teach them how to find out more about the topics themselves. There is so much out there...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!