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Build Your Own Dog Wagon

Posted by michael on from the mush dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Philip Greenspun isn't the only Web-site innovator with an interest in dogs, airplanes, photography, and travel. While Kyler Laird appears to operate on a budget that's a couple of orders of magnitude lower, his description of adventures in dog-cart development exhibit the same virtues of technical specificity and lucidity."

37 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. old news by rd4tech · · Score: 4, Funny

    Lately, the cool thing to do is to put some nanotech together and build yourself your own DOG :)

  2. But what about.... by CmdrMooCow · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hrm.

    Yeah, all those dogs in a RAID array... sure to run fast.

    Or reliable.

    Or some combination thereof.

    1. Re: But what about.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah- and just imagine a Beowulf cluster of them.

    2. Re: But what about.... by secolactico · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wouldn't that be a "Beowoof" cluster?

      --
      No sig
    3. Re: But what about.... by thebatlab · · Score: 1

      It's so lame you can't help but laugh :)

    4. Re: But what about.... by noidentity · · Score: 1

      Yeah, all those dogs in a RAID array... sure to run fast.

      Unfortunately when a member craps out it's a little messier to rectify...

    5. Re: But what about.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Yeah, but if you use undomesticated breeds, it becomes a "baying-wolf" cluster.

    6. Re: But what about.... by pyrrhonist · · Score: 1
      Yeah, all those dogs in a RAID array... sure to run fast.

      Sweet! I'm going pick up a few mutts from a shelter for my very own Redundant Array of Inexpensive Dogs.
      No need for expensive purebreds.

      --
      Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
  3. Budget... by Faust7 · · Score: 4, Funny

    While Kyler Laird appears to operate on a budget that's a couple of orders of magnitude lower,

    Well, his web server sure doesn't show it.

    --
    The coolest voice ever.
  4. too bad greenspun's a caricature of himself now by jbellis · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    it's like he's trying to karma whore -- the trollish kind, that is -- on his own weblog. (Which appears to be down right now. So much for my point.)

  5. already by CmdrMooCow · · Score: 3, Funny

    Already slashdotted by post #2?

    Egads. Its late on a Friday night. I guess only people who have nowhere to be this weekend would be on slashdot.

    oh wait....

    1. Re:already by gnu-generation-one · · Score: 1
      "Already slashdotted by post #2?"

      A note at the end of the article reads:
      "On Friday, 2004-05-29, while waiting for some files to move in order to clear some /tmp space, I noticed a couple hits to this page with http://slashdot.org/as the referrer. In quick order I thought "Why the heck would Slashdot readers look at this?" and then "Oh, crap!" I've been meaning to move more of my personal files from my server at Wintek in Lafayette, IN to the one I have with FDCservers.net in Chicago, but I'd run into problems and delayed it. No more! There are high fees for bandwidth usage at Wintek and the FDCservers machine is unmetered. It was time to move quickly.

      Because of a lack of disk space at Wintek it took me awhile to get my data exported. Then I quickly installed it in Chicago and configured redirections (lairds.org -> lairds.us) in time for the Slashdotting. Unfortunately I didn't configure caching of the Zope data in time and the HTTP server became very slow to respond due to all of the dynamic images. (It was interesting that the machine was still quite responsive for SSH sessions. Yea, 2.6.5!)

      Now to track down the "Anonymous Coward" who submitted this as a Slashdot story..."
    2. Re:already by adipocere · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This paragraph pretty clearly states why the Slashdot editors should try to seek permission, or at least alert the site owners, before linking. We all think it is cute when a site bursts into flames as we all hit it simultaneously, but a lot of small businesses, hobbyists, and so forth, cannot afford to have some giant T3s attached to the latest and best clustered servers on the off-chance that Slashdot would link to them.

      However, when it does happen, it's like a Lottery of Suck: sites go down, fees get hiked, business could be lost. A great deal of Slashdotters work for small businesses who simply could not withstand the hit.

      Nor is there a good excuse to NOT warn first, just the eagerness to "get the big scoop" on a site that is only vaguely journalistic. Slashdot could offer a "why don't we cache this page for you?" or ask for permission to reprint a page. It seems like the fair thing to do.

      Before you laugh, consider that people have made modules for Apache, last I saw, specifically to deal with sudden slashdotting by throttling based on referrer. Now, if the open source community sees a need for it, it probably is a valid need.

  6. teaser by spektricide · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can't believe I stayed awake another whole 30 minutes just to see this post. My timing of fresh articles sucks

  7. Kyler Laird is creepy by Karma+Star · · Score: 3, Funny

    I knew him back in college. He used to stalk my roommate, and things got so bad that she needed to get a restraining order against him. Eventually, she transferred to a different school...

    --
    Me email iz skyewalkerluke at microsoft's free email service.
    1. Re:Kyler Laird is creepy by dogfart · · Score: 2, Funny
      Just curious, was your roomate a retriever or a terrier?

      Kyler might have had certain breed-specific obsessions. Stalking is always bad manners, and generally well-trained canines do not indulge in this behavior.

      I'm glad your roomate managed to get him restrained. Hopefully it was a harness and not just a collar.

      --

      "dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope"

  8. I started thinking about these things 25 years ago by kfg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was sitting on my front porch and a guy went by "walking" his dog by letting it pull him along on his bicycle. The little lightbulb thingy went off in my head (Ow! Stop it.)

    Since that time I've "designed" several variants, also in my head, but I ran into a slight problem on approaching the development phase.

    I don't particularly care for dogs.

    My cats don't particularly care for the idea of being hitched up to a cart either.

    And thus technology is set back decades by the peculiarities of a single man.

    Oh, yeah, you can also already buy one commercially, so it's not like it's really a novel idea (mushers use them to keep their dogs in shape during the summer season. My idea is to make an ultralight one specifically tuned for running in the modern urban enviroment. Carbon fiber, racing bicycle wheels, that sort of thing).

    Here's an example:

    Dog Cart

    KFG

  9. Good grief by Kohath · · Score: 5, Funny

    You don't need a wagon when your dog is a World War I flyng ace.

  10. Has to be said.... by niktesla · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looks like his server is running on a chihuahua.

    Sorry, let the karma burn...

    --
    I've discovered a remarkable proof, but this margin is too small to contain it...
  11. It had to be said., I can imagine a by mpn14tech · · Score: 4, Funny

    Beo woof woof woof of those.

  12. Re:I started thinking about these things 25 years by Ratso+Baggins · · Score: 1

    Since it's slash'd we wouldn't want this degenerating into a Dogs vs Cats thing. My kar doesn't particularly care for cats either....

    --

    --
    "we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.

  13. Re:I started thinking about these things 25 years by kfg · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I think I saw that at a Joie Chitwood Thrill Show once. It got kinda pathetic when they tried to jump the school busses though.

    I'd guess they have to try to talk a new woman into trying it for every performance.

    KFG

  14. Oblig. by ciroknight · · Score: 1, Redundant

    I'd like to see a beowoof cluster of those!

    --
    "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
  15. My personal variant. by Ossk · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This reminds me...

    Several years ago we got our first dog, an Alaskan Malemute. They're bred to pull sleds, so I decided to "walk" her while wearing my roller blades. The results were exhilarating. The only way for me to stop once she got up to speed was to let go of the leash, fall down, or wait for her to stop/turn. Cats coming into view proved very dangerous.

    Who needs roller coasters when you've got a dog and skates?

  16. Slashdot...my new calandar by djplurvert · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Even when lost in contemplation of my navel over days of inadequate sleep...I can still tell when the weekend has arrived...thanks to slashdot. With a show of hands, who's seen best in show.

  17. Re:I started thinking about these things 25 years by Seumas · · Score: 1, Funny

    So your third choice should be to get a girlfriend who likes to be tied-up and hitch your ride to her. Then tell here ther'es a Dove bar at the end of the streeet.

  18. Actually... by Ankle · · Score: 1
    Its late on a Friday night. I guess only people who have nowhere to be this weekend would be on slashdot.
    I do have somewhere to be on this friday night, the prom. But my 'friend' decided he'd rather not go dressed up as a Klingon...

    I got the darn Starfleet Dress uniform all ready for it and everything, what a waste. What a P'taQ!
  19. Lil' Rascals by uberdave · · Score: 1

    There was an episode of Lil' Rascals wherein they made a fire truck (I think). They had a dog on a treadmill as the engine. When they stepped on the "gas" pedal, it lifted the door between the dog and a cat. The dog saw the cat and gave chase, and powered the vehicle.

    --
    "I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
  20. ooo, shiny! by SuperBanana · · Score: 1
    too bad greenspun's a caricature of himself now

    It's worse- the guy who started photo.net, one of the internet's oldest photography resource sites, hasn't uploaded a photo or posted in almost two years. But he's had time to write a blog almost every day. It reminds me of the "oo, shiny" phenomenon.

    For all his talk of ideals, I think he just wanted to make money off it, like every other MIT professor, it seems. When it became clear phoot.net wasn't going to be making him rich with an IPO and all, he bailed- they set up some fruity corporation ("luminal path corporation"? Gimme a break) and he's a member of the board of directors.

    Photo.net is rotting; no innovation, nobody's fixing problems with it, the columns are self-promoting drivel...hell, go into the lens database and there's 50 billion different versions of the same exact lens typed slightly differently because people didn't pick from existing lenses, and nobody has gone into the database to clean up the mess. So we have the "EF 50mm/1.8", the "50/1.8", the "50mm EF-S f1.8", etc.

    on his own weblog

    One does wonder exactly how an MIT CS professor became qualified to have a weblog on Harvard Law's website.

    --
    Please help metamoderate.
  21. Dog carts. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    A dog cart is actually a type of wagon pulled behind a horse.

    You'd know that if you read some Sherlock Holmes. They need to call this something else.

  22. Sounds like another... by CptNerd · · Score: 1


    ... "Waggin' the Dog" story to me.

    --
    By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
  23. All you need to go along with the wagon... by Teddy+Beartuzzi · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is Techno Trousers to pull them!

  24. we had one of those... by ShadowRage · · Score: 1

    it looked like a big wheelchair with a tall back, and outfit the straps to the harness on the dog, and even a doberman can pull it, they're usually used to help the dog build up its strength and muscles.

  25. Re:I started thinking about these things 25 years by HBI · · Score: 1

    Fat chicks have mod points, dude.

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
  26. Dog Weapon? by Green+Light · · Score: 1

    For some reason, when scanning the titles, I read this as "Build Your Own Dog Weapon", and had visions of a canon-like device that launched dogs...

    --
    "Send an Instant Karma to me" - Yes
  27. But will it work with my.... by Ch_Omega · · Score: 1

    ...Dwarf Dachshund?

  28. And I saw her face... by FirstNoel · · Score: 1

    She's a retriever,
    not a trace of doubt in my mind.

    --
    "Hmm. I am to metaphor cheese as metaphor cheese is to transitive verb crackers!"