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Send A Message To An LED Sign
An anonymous reader submits "I just got a Pro Lite LED sign today. After a few minutes splicing and wiring up a DB9 to RJ11 connection, and a little fun with python, I've got a script that lets me take input from the web and display it on the sign. Eventually it will have other, more useful, purposes, but I figured I'd let you guys play with it as it is. There's also a log of past messages."
Wow..didn't take long to slashdot that sucker into oblivion
Will try tomorrow.
Just think of the possibilities with the Times Square billboard! :D
Before the story went public....I input to the sign "You're about to get RAPED by slashdot!" Now the story is public. No more website.
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
Any chance of sharing the code? ;P
Maybe you can use the smoke that's coming from your computer right now as a screen for looking at the Venus transit. You won't be using that for a while I guess.
I saw the post without any replies. Tried it and it was gone... That was fast.
The Quake dudes on your segment are gonna be pissed!
slashdotted
well at least it loaded the background color... btw its blue... i think thats as far as anyone will get
unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
Have you thought of trying ethernet...? I hear it's a bit quicker than a serial connection and may help prevent the /. effect...
;-)
I've never shoed a horse, but I once told a donkey to piss off!
You're lucky goatse is no more. What would your mother say if she decided to see what internet site was so important for you to enshrine on a LED board?
I've got a script that lets me take input from the web and display it on the sign. Eventually it will have other, more useful, purposes, but I figured I'd let you guys play with it as it is.
Are you FUCKING INSANE?
A beowulf cluster of these things!!
No, seriously!! We could...uhh....
*runs*
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Why on earth would you submit your own website when you know it will go down in a matter of seconds? Authors should have to start proving some sort of minimal bandwidth requirement before submitting their own site. I'm tired of people hosting web pages on their home DSL lines.
The Technonaut
Either you're a VERY brave man or this thing is locked in a closet somewhere. If it's visible from the street, you're in a heap of trouble, boy.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
... comes around.
... before there were webcams ... at Netscape ... before there were dot-com crashes ... that was powered by a CGI script ... before there was web application services (tm IBM^M^M^MMicrosoft^M^M^M^M^M^M^M^M^MSCO) ... that was pointed (the webcam, stay with me) ... at an ...
... I'm just ... not ... inspired by it all any more.
In the early days of the web, back when men were men and browsers were something nobody really wanted to write, there was a webcam
LED sign. To which you could send your own messages, laugh while your coffee and TSP reports get cold, and marvel at the 'wonders of that modern Internet thingie'.
Now any punk with a screwdriver and half a tab key can hack their own 15 minutes of signage
So I'm not even gonna visit the link.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Yeah, it was just after I posted the "All your base ..." message. :-)
Neat!
zWhat would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
...Did you hear about the guitarist who locked his keys in his van...?
It took him nearly an hour to get the drummer out..
I've never shoed a horse, but I once told a donkey to piss off!
You're letting us play with your LED, that's brave!! Can you say STD (Slashdot Transmited Disease)
This is not my opinion. Actually, it's not even an opinion. And I'm nowhere to be seen near it
Slashdot hits you. You die. --More--
Maybe that explains him hosting this on slashdot. Ya know, scipt kiddies just aren't the same these days. Back in my day, we knew not to do something this stupid!
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
I think Freecache would have saved his neck on this one, but its too late for that now. http://freecache.org
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
At least he didn't code it into his spiffy new Nokia phone and has to wave his arm for the next 8 hours to display our messages.
Click here for a free picture of an iPod!
hes certanly had balls of steel
"Here comes /."
No kidding! :-)
zWhat would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
This is a FREE UNIVERSE, buddy. If you don't like it, eat shit and DIE. I'll submit on 2600 baud if I so fucking like.
What connection is that one on? DSL?
24.x.x.x = cable
This specific block is owned by
Cablelynx NETIP-WEHCO-BLK-2 (NET-24-204-80-0-1)
24.204.80.0 - 24.204.99.255
Many cable users can actually define their own IP address.
Well seeings how I think I was one of the only people to be able to load it up before it went down, here is what was on the site. This is pretty much it (very simple interface), the only thing you can't see here are "Send Now" and "blank sign" buttons and a dark blue background.
Leave a Scrolling Message for Mark
You can leave a message on the scrolling message board for Mark, or see the log of messages already left.
This will replace the existing message of:
[Tue 02:55 24.5.54.115]
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Below are some simple commands you can use. Insert the command text where you want the command result to be. Hey folks, this isn't XHTML. If you want to use a tag, please make sure it's in all caps or it doesn't work.
Graphic Blocks
There are 26 reprogramable graphic blocks.
<BA> Telephone <BB> Glasses <BC> Tap <BD> Rocket <BE> Monster
<BF> Key <BG> Shirt <BH> Helicopter <BI> Car <BJ> Tank
<BK> House <BL> Teapot <BM> Knife & Fork <BN> Duck <BO> Motorcycle
<BP> Bicycle <BQ> Crown <BR> Sweet Heart <BS> Arrow Right <BT> Arrow Left
<BU> Arrow Down-Left <BV> Arrow Up-Left <BW> Mug of Beer <BX> Chair <BY> High-heeled Shoes
Colors
There are 26 color modes.
<CA> Dim Red <CB> Red <CC> Bright Red
<CD> Orange <CE> Bright Orange <CF> Light Yellow
<CG> Yellow <CH> Bright Yellow <CI> Lime
<CJ> Dim Lime <CK> Bright Lime <CL> Bright Green
<CM> Green <CN> Dim Green <CO> Yellow/Green/Red
<CP> Rainbow (Default) <CQ> Red/Green 3D <CR> Red/Yellow 3D
<CS> Green/Red 3D <CT> Green/Yellow 3D <CU> Green on Red
<CV> Red on Green <CW> Orange on Green 3D <CX> Lime on Red 3D
<CY> Green on Red 3D <CZ> Red on Green 3D
Note:
Some of these color combinations look so bad that they should require a permit.
Character Sizes
<SA> Normal (Default) <SE> Flashing Normal
<SB> Bold (Wide) <SF> Flashing Bold (Wide)
<SC> Italic <SG> Flashing Italic
<SD> Bold Italic (Wide) <SH> Flashing Bold Italic (Wide)
Display Functions
<FA> AUTO
Random color & presentation <FB> OPEN
<-- Open from Center --> <FC> COVER
<-- Covers Text --> <FD> APPEAR
Instantly replaces text <FE> CYCLING
Rolling Colors
<FF> CLOSE <--
Blank screen right to left <FG> CLOSE -->
Blank screen left to right <FH> CLOSE --><--
Blank screen outter to center <FI> SCROLL UP
Scroll up from bottom <FJ> SCROLL DOWN
Scroll down from top
<FK> OVERLAP
Two layers slide together to form text <FL> STACKING
Falling dots form text <FM> COMIC 1
PacMan <FN> COMIC 2
Random creature walking
<FP> PAUSE
Short delay of motion <FQ> SLEEP
Blank screen until the next timer activates <FR> RANDOM
Random dots appear forming text <FS> SHIFT <--
Roll message right to left (Default) <FT> TIME/DATE
Show time and date, no choice of formatting
<FU> MAGIC
Change text color each time <FV> THANK YOU
Cursive "Thank you" <FW> WELCOME
Cursive "Welcome" <FX> SPEED 1 <FY> SPEED 2
Jittery
It was only a matter of time before some clever slashdotter figured out how to make the leds light up to look like the goatse man.
speaking of this topic, i own a LED dotmatrix display for which i could use some specs... it features about 12 characters width of 7x5 [if im not mistaken] red LEDs. the only visible company label is SIGMA, which has not proven very helpful since this is a brand of the very large METRO group who are not exactly helpful to small consumers. the device features a rj-11 input, presumably for getting the time, and an IR port for inputing static data. any information helping me to put my current server load or pfctl logs on the display would be highly welcome.
thnx,
strangeloop
I think the junctions on all those diodes must be bjorked by now.
When will these DSL "self hosting" types ever learn, eh?
Doesn't ANYONE have a mirror?!
I've always wanted to get an LED sign for the back of my car. Yours fixes the problem that I had with actually buying one. Now, I could just edit the Unix "fortune" program to quip random, witty, profane statements to drivers that piss me off rather than having to type the whole statement in. Thanks.
Back in 2000 and 2001, we had a meter high led-sign attached to a wall in the central Helsinki (finland, europe) and anyone with a phone could send a text message to it.
It didn't crash, but the company did.
this guy has figured it out....the only safe way to run IIS is to make sure your bandwidth is so flooded that a hacker couldn't stay connected long enough to do anything.
Ho Hum .. another example of spamtech. Done before ... boring etc etc zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Let's take a quick look at this line:
:P
There's also a log of past messages.
So... log.asp eh? Windows? Or some silly man running asp under apache? 'Nuff said...
Oh, and I guess maybe it's on some cable modem or DSL provider... that doesn't help.
if you could make it display the wavform of an MP3 player in near real time. But, it didn't sound like that was doable. I'd buy one if it could do that.
And this is the digital equivalent of a hair shirt.
Or maybe he was looking to compile a list of all the lastest euphemisms for gentials, excrement, related fuctions, and common miss- or alternative spellings. In which case, he's brilliant. Mission Accomplished.
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
This is just begging for it. It's not even a challenge - at 1:30 AM Pacific time it doesn't even stand a chance. Why not host it on an 8086 running Elks or Minix off of a 360KB floppy while you're at it? And power it by a couple of potatoes, too.
Sign that displays messages based on web content: Very Cool.
:) But it would be even cooler if one could rig up an 802.11 interface!
Pointing tens of thousands of nerds to your DSL line: Not cool at all.
But seriously, that's a pretty cool idea. I could imagine one on my desk cycling through Slashdot headlines, weather information, and (of course) my fortune file.
that's the sound of little innocent leds whimpering under a slashdotting
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Maybe submitting stories to Slashdot will become the next way of performing a DDOS!
Yeah. Right.
I'm completely sure that not a single person here expected that site to stay up.
[Just Shut Up and Do What I say]
the web server got slashdotted before we could slashdot the sign!
Moderation Totals: Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Redundant=1, Insightful=6, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=12. (not mine)
24.x.x.x = cable
And DSL... but, yes, this is cable.
He's probably killed off service for others in his neighborhood too:
(from tcptraceroute>
13 89-228.vbrg-a5.cablelynx.com (24.204.89.228) [closed] 1713.840 ms * 2018.488 ms
maplin in the UK have something similar on special at the moment. No serial port but I was going to get one and hack with it.
has anyone had one in pieces yet?
Still its 50 ($100) but tha's sucking for being in the UK aint it.
How long until we start seeing people plastering "All your base are belong to us!" or variants thereof? Here are a couple of other lines that come to mind...
"Osama Bin-Laden was here"
"She bangs! She bangs!"
~ Old Warriors Society
My plan: 1. Make sign connected to interweb 2. ?????????? 3. Profit! yay/wooage to the guy who thought of this and subsiquently got his server killed when it got /.'ed
Takes a while to work, but it works once every 10mins.
I sure hope he didn't post with the personal edition you get with InterDev running, limitted to 10 connections.
Hopefully, we can visit his site tomorrow when the effect eases, and put a few kind words on his sign about IIS.
So it's like the fridge magnets page, only
more modern... and 'slashdotted' too?
http://www.savetz.com/fridge/fridge.cgi
Never seen this?
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I think this is the first time a LED has been slashdotted.
Road-rage abounds....
And someone is ALWAYS bigger or crazier than you are....
we can get Timothy to post this as the daily dupe, and slashdot him again! Betcha his isp sends someone over to his house at 1:30 am to personally pull the plug.
are belong to us!
"Free" as in "free 'undred quid".
Ive always wanted one of these... as soon as this guy regains consciousness, Im going to get details, build my own, hook it up to my friends OC3 network (@isp), and repost to /.
:P
Should this actually work, it could become the next net phenom.
We should all ban together and donate band-aids by the thousands for this guys server
The Code Ninja is swift with his tool, precise in his delivery, and deadly accurate in his execution.
Trapped in Pro Lite LED Sign factory. Please send help!
classic. I don't really thing it will be very interesting unless the sign is posted in a public place, with a strict swear filter. Maybe some moderation oversight. Put it in a pub; loads of fun. The true entertainment potential of this thing is vastly underestimated.
Then again, when you're drunk, anythings funny. Except those "in Soviet Russia" jokes.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
He's talking about a 1999 LJ article, and all the pages are last modified 1999 or 2000..
ie, 4 or 5 years ago.
Litterally...
Somebody set up us the LED.
All your LED are belong to us.
I was only reading the first link, which is the 1999/2000 information this guy used :)
From Atmel: 8051.
Some drivers/latches from Micrel.
And of course some LED blocks from Sun LED.
The 8051 handles incoming serial data as well as acting as a 'RAM DAC' to load the lines on the Micrels which act as line drivers to the LED displays.
The Micrel's can be bit-banged in a serial-ish protocol which corellates to outputs on the 8-16 pins on each micrel (ie: think of it as programming a multipin output chip via a serialish link).
The 8051 constantly changes which row of LED block its updating and goes about it's business. Ideally, the 8051 should be changing rows 70 times a second for a good clean refresh rate.
These really aren't any different from the LCD modules you can pick up from Jameco, Hosfelt, or MPJA (or perhaps Digikey).
And lets not forget Find Chips for all of your parts searching needs.
"You have no chance to survive make your time!"
In year 2000 there was a Finnish company called Wapit. The company building, which was located in central Helsinki, had a huge LED display on its wall. You could send SMS to a certain number and your message appeared on the display.
I wonder how long it took him to get that sign working again....
You are about to give someone a piece of your mind, something which you can ill afford...
This is just another medium for people to port goatse.cx to.
But there is something a little boring- without a cam feed- how can we actually tell it works? I did actually manage to get to it, and leave a message on the board - but who knows if it displayed - and if my tags did what I expected them to do?
OrionRobots.co.uk - Robots From sol
Did something similar myself about 3 years ago, used a pager connetced to the LSD sign and sent messages to the pager - worked a treat. Initially scraped info off a few news web sites and had in in the lobby of the company displaying latest news etc. Tried to sell it but the company went bust before I could - but that is another sad story for a different time............
There are 10 different kinds of people, those who understand binary and those who do not
What about:
:) sure to get any one worried
PL-M2014R DRIVER FAILURE. Contact vendor.
.
No, that was cable :)
TPF
Back in the day you'd probably get DDoS'ed by your mom picking up the phone downstairs.
i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer
http://wls.wwco.com/sendmsg/
Achtung, alle Slassendotters!
Das sign is nicht für goatse und first posten. Ist easy timeouts zu generieren, kracking und Distributed Service denichten! Das anonymen kauards standen from keywerk back, ist to post comments to polls. Die palen geeks going heraus in sunlight and girls meeting. Alle relaxen, while blinkenlights sowjetrussen watschen.
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
Thank you for brightening up my day. I mean really, this has to be a joke doesn't.. Either that or you are a fucking idiot.
Either way, I am especially amused.
...when VeryLowSodium.com (the source of the famous "Yatta!" flash video) did the same thing. He even has a webcam so you can see your scrolling nugget of wisdom in action.
This is not the sig you're looking for.
Hecklebot
check your speling
Perhaps its just a coincidence, but the ticker board in Times Square is now scrolling: 'Error 404 Page not found' ?
...when it's on a cable modem? Are you INSANE?
Slashdot needs to post an article, on above all things - article posting ethics. This current article demonstrates a trend that's happening recently, whereby people are seeing someone's cool homepage (or submitting their own), and forwarding it to hundreds of thousands of internet users via a Slashdot article.
I mean please, linking a CGI page on a windows server hosted on your cable modem connection, with a throughput of 9.6K... that's not gonna hold up 5 seconds after slashdot posts the article.
This is hopelessly offtopic, but it's something that people need to start thinking about before they submit an article.
Man watching 6 MSCE's around a sun box, looks alot like the opening scene's of 2001:space odyssey...
I was at a festival this weekend where they had the sms txt screen going on. If they did filter it I didn't notice it - there were some racial ones that raised a few eye brows.
"Mat blows goats Andy/Nuk has proof"
60,000 people laugh.
Slashdotted, who didn't see that coming?
I remember a time when editors knew fancy shit like spelling and grammar.
Man, I feel old around here now.
More than 10 years old...
DROS - Open-Source Robot Software
Most Pc's - $399
/. ing
Any Gadget you can build and put on a pc - $9.95
Any pc with a Gadget that can take a
Priceless
Yes i have
here is a mirror version
I loved the pair they had at the Blue Man Group show (played after the openers and before BMG started their show when I saw them 1 year ago). After a minute of them scrolling related signs, they started quipping and soon it was an open revolt - the left sign was the upstart, the right was the 'tool of the man' (according to the left). They each also asked the crowd to shout about the other sign (and had the obligitory "I can't hear you!" comments :), but it got going too fast to read everything - what with the short-ish signs, fast text, and simultaneous "talking".
:)
Fun stuff
Hmm, it might sound like a tame version of a 2-person chat room, but it was much funnier!
YMMV,
8-PP
Somebody set him up the bomb. He get signal. Main LED turn on. All his base are belong to us. He is on the way to destruction. He have no chance to survive make his time.
For great justice.
You people think he's stupid or ignorant. But he realizes that you people practically have orgasms when you get to make cracks about slashdotting a slow website. The slower the site, the more the +5 Funny's.
/. community won't be able to stop laughing for weeks.
In fact, I think I'm going to hook up a website to a tin can and string and post it here. The
Just because you have fun with your python doesn't mean you have to tell us all about it. Did you also have a minor kernal release?
WWJD? JWRTFA!
But hey, this one is in color!
(I would have made a link to the old story, but slashcode's search capability is a tad weak)
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
The page currently reads at the top:
Good morning Slashdot users. Someone thought it'd be cute to link to me, which isn't a good idea with the 10 user version of IIS. Sorry for the 403.9's. For more information about my setup, go to ArsTechnica or SomethingAwful.From the webpage itself, now that it's back up: "Someone thought it'd be cute to link to me, which isn't a good idea with the 10 user version of IIS. Sorry for the 403.9's." Want to DDOS someone? Just pretend to be them and submit their webpage to Slashdot!
Besides the fact that there is no such critter as a DB-9 connector.
r e x is either P or S depending on whether the contacts are pins or sockets. As an aside, there are now connectors with fifteen 22guage contacts in an "E" size shell, 26 in an "A" etc. These "high density" connectors are HDE-15x, HDA-26x, etc. The VGA connector is a variant of the HDE-15.
Back in the day when the "D" shell connectors were created (at ITT-Cannon?) there were four sizes all with 20 guage contacts. The 15 contact connector was in an "A" size shell, 25 contacts in a "B", 37 contacts in a "C", and 50 contacts in a "D" size. Later, a 9 contact connector was developed in a smaller shell. Guess what, the next letter available was "E". So it's correct to have:
DE-9x
DA-15x
DB-25x
DC-37x
DD-50x
whe
When RS-232 was standardized as an interface, they chose two connectors - the DB-25 and a 26 contact Centronics. The DB-25 became the ubiquitous connector in the PC industry. But almost no one was the full RS-232 standard. At best they might use the CTS and RTS lines in addition to the transmit and recieve. So, to save money, the PC industry went to the DE-9 to eliminate the extraneous hardware costs. But guess what, a lot of inDUHviduals couldnt' get their minds around the fact that the connector is smaller so they couldn't change what they call the connector. Thus the incorrect nomenclature "DB-9". Get it right, it is a DE-9.
Also note, since the PC makers have eliminated all the hand shaking, most of the flow control, and used a different connector than what's in the specification, the serial port on your PC is not strictly RS-232.
This was an AC post calling for control of a piece of hardware. How do we know the AC is even the real owner of the sign? Even if it is real, the sign probably crashed under the load just from /. subscribers (all 3 of them :-) ) before it was posted for the public.
Over the years I have had quite a few submissions rejected and then the editors publish something like this. eeedeeeeots!
Keep the Classic Slashdot.
Sams club[.com] has the Beta Bright (24L x 2.1H) for $158 Item# 078029
Or the big one for $528... anyone else have prices?
I've been looking to mount one in my car so I can berate the dumb ass drivers behind me.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
That is/was his ex-bosses LED sign... I guess that's what he gets for firing him. :)
Dumbass. "LDS" was a nod to Star Trek: The voyage home. "2600" is the name of a magazine, or the frequency of the Captain Crunch whistle. "2800" is the actual baud rate the great-grandparent was failing to remember.
... does this story feel very 1999.
Remember back when everyone was interfacing stupid things to the internet. Coffemakers with IPs, soda machines with IPs, remote control vehicles, model trains, blah... blah.. blah.
It's old, it's done. I don't know what the next leap would be. Maybe interface some sort of semi-autonmous robot and let people control it for 5mins. But even that sounds familar. Maybe do that and deploy it in Iraq. That would be different.
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
get a life!
Well, since that sign has been slashdotted into a smouldering mass of silicon, here is a different sign to play with.
It runs Apache and has survived under heavy load in the past.
Oh, and it's been online for about 4 years.
Have fun.
---
"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
Wow, who didn't see that Slashdotting coming.
...how the letters on an LED display are straight up and down when they flash, and tilted sideways when they move. I bet the readers of this forum are some of the few that would notice, and even be able to figure out why. (Some hardware experience requred).
It should be:
What happen?
Someone set up us the Slashdot Story!
We get packets!
Main LED turn on!
How are you gentlement? All your bandwidth are belong to us. Your server is on the way to destruction!
What you say?
You have no chance to throttle bandwidth, make your time! HAHAHAHAHAHAAH
Launch all 403.9 for great justice!
"Our funds have never taken part in toxic or death spiral convertible financings of any sort" -BayStar's managing partne
I'm a techno geek like everyone else. I have my lights and HVAC computer controlled and accessable by the internet.
I developed my own little web server and monitered port 8080 on my broadband connection. I traveled alot and wanted to sign in to turn lights on and off when I was on the road. Kinda make it look like someone was there when they were not.
Two to three months after I did this, I would wake up in the middle of the night with my lights turning on and off all over my house. I finally had to pull the plug on it.
I never posted it to any web site either. It was only a matter of time before this guys web site was found.
Nathan
I actually hooked up an LCD display to one of my computers and created a small script/plugin for irssi, so when someone said anything it showed up on the display.
It was pretty useless though, since the display was to small to be read from anywhere but the chair by my computer.
In order for bittorrent to be effective you need to have enough people with active connections to download from. When downloading a web page you would have many smaller connections that would not be active for very long.
... but tracking 1000 connections would probably be easier than serving a webpage - this comment form I'm looking at is ~18k, 1000 downloads = 18Mb doesn't it? Surely under high contention, a system like this would be more efficient?
As long as the page is in the users cache, it could still be served. Tracking all the connections may be an issue
A modification of BitTorrent would be an extreme way to acheive it, but it was just an archtectural basis for my idea.
Feh, it'll never catch on!
but too bad your ass got slashdotted!
Send a message to walt.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
You can go here to see some shots of the sign in action.
-- Mark Lyon http://www.marklyon.org
It was fun to build though LED signs aren't very useful. Posting a link to a newsgroup was the best thing I did with it. My webcam was pointed at it so anyone could see what it was displaying, there was a log of messages, and you could even draw on it.
Now we're even slashdotting LED signs! Outrageous!
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
and it's great! I use it to post my meeting schedule, if I'm in or out, and any messages I feel would enlighten the coworkers. Getting it hooked up to the internet so I could update it from home made me the King of the Gadgets at work. It's also great to put a personalized "welcome" message to clients when they stop by the office. People are suckers to see their name in lights! (And I include myself - that is, after all, why I bought the thing...)
yeah yeah ...
I recall submitting messages to an LED sign in someone's development office. I think it was netscape's... anyone else recall this?
it had a webcam pointed at it, so once it was submitted and scrolling you got to see what it looked like to them...
i'll have to check my old harddrives, and archives to see if i still have the capture of my "i am a pineapple" message...
Here's another LED Sign. It's by the owner of a computer store in my town, and I use it to ask him what kinds of used junk he has in. And for ASCII art :)
RJack-45
This was done long ago on http://www.verylowsodium.com
http://www.verylowsodium.com/fun.php#sign
lednews.pl
(The Scientific American feed is commented out because newsisfree changed their syndication urls. I don't have the new url handy...)
i've always wanted to mount one of these things in my rear window and hookup to a little keypad in front so i can send nasty messages to other drivers... a nice touch would be to have the ability to store a few presets for quick responses... imagine how great it would be to whip around someone and flash "get off your @#$! phone!" or "that pedal to the right is the gas"... or simply "you're a moron!"... the possibilities for offense are limitless...
This is funny? It's dissapointing! I was wanting to play, or at least see the log. Did anyone save the log and can put a mirror up? Puh-lease?
Why are we so fascinated at such obviously crude technologies (LED's and CAPS-LOCK keys)?
Tag lost or not installed.
There was one of these in a dev bullpen at Netscape in the late 90s ('98?). They were at least kind enough to put a webcam on it so you could see your handiwork.
He now installed Apache for Win32 instead of that 5 (FIVE!!!) connections IIS... hehe.
He redirected to goat.cx
BURN HIM AT THE STAKE!!!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like yelling.
That's because I am yelling.
I was thinking of converting to paganism, but where the hell can you find sacrificial virgins these days?
It must be a troll's dream.
It seems the owner of the site has changed it so that it now redirects to goat.cx (apparently after a recommendation to do so in the ars technica forum). He asked the slashdot editors to take down the story (as he didn't post it for submission), they refused and he has altered it to point to goatse.
I never execpted to see a link to that site on /. HA HA good redirection buddy :) bastard lol
Thanks for the link.. to.. um.. that wonderful picture.
That's really not ok.
ticker.ca has been doing this in a much more sophistocated way (wireless transmission via pager networks) for a long ass time.
This isnt new.
The fifth-grade mentality behind most of the messages will be right there, center stage, for everyone to marvel at. A real treasure.
They were doing this at a little company called Netscape, who was the undisputed leader of the browser industry at that time.
Gopher was a better way to get information.
Trumpet Winsock was the norm (if you were lucky).
AOL's only internet offering was email service and they only sent you 3 unsolicited disks a week.
I set up a similar looking LED sign a couple years ago at work and we have an internal webserver that hosts the web interface to it (using Apache for Win32). The CGI interface is written in Perl, using a perl module (that I also wrote) that provides an minimal Perl API for the sign.
When a new line of text is submitted to the sign, the CGI script also sends the text to our office IRC channel via a separate Perl IRC bot, so you don't have to be sitting within visible range of the sign in order to enjoy it.
Full Perl source, a sample POD text output, and some pictures and screen snapshots are all available online on my website. (Note that no actual public interface to my LED sign setup is provided.)
Don't waste those cycles! Put them to use! http://www.distributed.net/
Owner of LED Display: I never knew LEDs could burst into flames like that. Curse you /. and your endless masses!
SIGFAULT
cyantologist.com has a LED sign
I'll hook up my TV to the Internet, everybody decide what channels I'm watching please.
Somehow I think I'm getting a Cable bill for thousands of dollars in pay per view Porno channels.
...in bed
It's funny how when this was originally posted on slashdot, he didn't have an anti-Kerry animation running on the site.
Now he does. Enjoy the Patriot Act and John Ashcroft if "your GW boy" gets elected.
Sounds like this little LED project is being used as election year propaganda.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
heres a site to make a lcd display show your cpu stats. http://www.linuxgazette.com/book/view/1648 you can get creative... ;)
I just picked up a BetaBrite sign, which is a similar brand to this one. I spent a little while reading the docs and came to the conclusion that the security on these things is horrible. A lot of them don't even use passwords. Just about anyone with a Linux laptop, some software like this: http://sourceforge.net/projects/betabrite/ and a serial cable can easily hijack these signs. To make it easier, they publish their protocol spec online. They even sell a protocol converter. I'd bet you can even do it with a Palm. I'd love to hear from people who have done this.
Many people have probably visited Walt's Pro-Lite info site by now, but the owner of that site currently has a page up that does exactly what the OP mentions. All that, and his script was last updated in 1999 ...