Slashdot Mirror
Model Train Control Using Your PDA
VP writes "Forget that crap about PDAs making you more productive by keeping useless contact lists and appointment reminders. Here is the real reason PDAs exist: locopalm.com. You might want to check out the TechTV spot as well."
Umm... How long have you been reading slashdot? Most of the stuff that gets posted is like this. Pointless to some. Hell, plenty of it is worse- this is actually cool and useful (although for only a small subset of humanity or even nerdom). This is nerdy, and hence it is worth being posted.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
It's great that someone has figured out how to control model trains with a palm pilot, but think of how useful a Palm could be to control various appliances and circuits in your house. This has been done with computers, but it isn't too practical. But with a Palm, imagine... You wake up in the morning, find the Palm Pilot on your night stand, and push a button to start the coffee maker. Did your kids leave the lights on in a dozen rooms in the house, and you've just settled down to watch the game? Turn 'em all off in a snap with the Palm Pilot by your side.
a while back there was the article about how to turn a floppy disk into the enterprise from star trek (why i even bothered to clarify that here is beyond me). It was kinda gay, but a lot of people that day put up pictures of their attempts at it. It was cool because everyone has a spare floppy disk, and many a /.er likes star trek. in the end, i found i actually enjoyed the article, simply because people were doing it and posting pictures. Now this one, i'm not going to see a picture of your attempt, and (as you mentioned) not too many people have trains and a pda and want to do this (the enterprise thing took five minutes).
but who am i to rant and rave about the poor quality of these articles? after all, i'm only here because i'm wasting a little time right now. and if it was realy that bad, i'd just leave, the internet is a big place.
YOU SUCK BALLS!
Who really cares? everyday i keep seeing the same bullshit. Guy controls train with PDA. whoohoo. instead of posting constructive topics, we get this weird shit.
You are apparently ignorant of history. Much of compter science came from a model railroad club.
The MIT model railroad club, to be exact. See Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution for more details.
These are the folks who brought you emacs, time-sharing, and open source.
So don't be surprised at the occasional computer-controlled-model-railroad story on slashdot. That's what they were trying to do in the FIRST place.
It's nice to see that its finally working. B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I don't know about 1, but I imagine quite a large percentage of slashdot users own pdas. (Furthermore, I would imagine that among the slashdot users who do own a fully working train set, the percentage also owning a PDA would be even higher.)
The idea of using a PDA to control a model train fits in VERY well with the theme of slashdot. It is a cool hack. There needs to be more of this kind of story posted here. It is a story of individual initiative and inventiveness, rather than corporate greed and legal entanglements. It is a story that inspires people. How much more constructive and good for the world do you want?
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad