You didn't read all of my comment: "...rely on cameras to help determine where they are to correct for this error in the absence of gps but what if the cameras were blinded as well?"
I've seen those reports. But I'm guessing that's assuming it can still get a proper GPS signal. If you rely solely on expensive accelerometers, gyros, etc. without a gps signal then there's no way you are going to make it 50+ miles back to a safe landing zone without a significant amount of inaccuracy in your position. Lots of missiles rely on cameras to help determine where they are to correct for this error in the absence of gps, but what if the cameras were blinded as well? Blinding a cruise missile is pretty hard seeing how fast it is moving and that it is designed to hug the ground. But a stealth drone that is not supposed to be seen and flies at slow speeds and at a high altitude makes it easier to track than the missile (although its still probably hard).
Although, I must admit, if you had asked me three years ago if the signals to drones would be unencrypted I would have said that was impossible and they would definitely encrypted that channel. So maybe we give the US government and their contractors too much credit and this thing actually landed itself in Iranian territory...
Hopefully they encrypted the control channel and just sent the video in the clear? Honestly, I've tried to think how they got their hands on this drone and hacking the control channel seems like the only possible way. Since the drone was undamaged they didn't shoot it down and it didn't just run out of gas. Even if they jammed the GPS receiver, there's no way the US would just land the drone. They would have it pre-programmed to circle until it ran out of gas then crash itself into the ground to make sure no one recovered it completely. They would just hope that they it either re-established a GPS fix and followed way points home or the control channel came back online and they could remotely control it before it ran out of fuel. So the only plausible explanation is that the control channel was hacked and it was safely landed. But in order to do that you would need to jam the satellite broadcast but allow your connection to be received by the plane. Maybe they have a plane flying above the drone that creates destructive interference with the satellite signal and then broadcasts it's own signal to the drone below? This would basically be a man in the middle attack against the drone. If you just jam the satellite, then the drone's receiver will also pick up the jammed signal and will have a hard time receiving your pirate broadcast. Or maybe you just send a set of spoofed commands to the drone, like land at xyz, then you jam the control signal so no one can cancel those commands.
Personally, I'd still take a CYA stance in this situation. If you return the documents or tell anyone you have them you are admitting to a crime by proving that you took the documents and had them in your possession. This is really the worst case situation because you could be sued civilly and potentially have criminal charges brought against you. At this point you can only hope the company doesn't take action against you. Also, I believe that you are not blackmailing them for these documents but who's to say they believe that? What if they think you destroyed the original copies and then kept some for yourself. Then you make money by them coming back to you and getting paid as a consultant who just so happens to have copies of the missing documents. Your intentions don't matter; the law and what lawyers can prove matter. You are taking an insane amount of risk by keeping these documents and also by bringing them back. Why expose yourself to so much risk? Would the company do the same for you?
To the other posters that said these things happen and documents are accidentally left here or there: Intellectual property is an extremely valuable asset to any company. You are potentially holding on to something that is worth a lot of money to the company. If you were an accountant or say someone physically handling money, would you accidentally leave $100, $1,000 or more dollars at your house or the companies' money while you were counting those bills or handling checks? No way. You would make sure every cent was accounted for and returned to the company. Do you think intellectual property is any different? In many cases it is even worse because a single pdf or notebook could be worth millions. Before you take that notebook home in the future, check your company policy, are you even allowed to remove items like this from the company? Get written approval from your boss that you can remove these items and work on them from home. But make sure that If you are planning to sever ties with the company, search your computers and your files for company information and return them (assuming you had permission to take them in the first place. If you didn't, then you are back to the original problem).
Once again, IANAL and this is not legal advice.
I'd be very careful in this situation. Even though you are supposedly "doing the company a favor" by smuggling the documents back in, were you even legally allowed to take the documents in the first place? Most employers have contracts or rules that state you can't remove documents from the office or that when you leave the company you must return all property to the company. Furthermore, it is most likely that this documentation was property of the company all along and in that case did you break any laws by removing it from the company and keeping it? IANAL but this is a very tricky situation. You may be doing good for the company now but you are profiting off of documents that you do not own and may not even have a legal right to possess.
Personally, I'd stick with just what's in my head and not keep any documents, files, etc. from a previous employer. It's just asking for trouble.
You are probably better off using google voice. GV lets you screen calls as necessary. Then your android phone can connect directly to GV and make calls through it.
I use asterisk for the in-laws so that incoming calls can ring all phones in the house at the same time and so they can also transfer calls to each phone in the house independently. Also, using a sip trunk to the voip provider allows them to have as many concurrent incoming and outgoing calls as the bandwidth provides on their internet connection. They just pay per minute for each call and not per line. Asterisk also allows multiple different DIDs to be forwarded to their house and ring the same phones. If I ever wanted to have a single DID ring only one phone it's pretty easy to change that as well. Also, asterisk can setup time-based ringing for lines, blacklisting, and lots of other things. But the main reason for asterisk is so that I can use low cost SIP trunk providers. Services that abstract away from SIP will charge you a lot more money.
However, configuring asterisk is not the easiest thing to pickup. It does give you complete control over the phone call and routing of the channel but getting it working perfectly takes some time. There are some guis that try to make it simple, like freepbx, trixbox, elastix, but I prefer a barebones asterisk install. If you learn how to configure the extensions and endpoints properly, you can have a lot of control over the system. You can even have incoming calls be passed to a perl or python script to control the flow of the call. It's an easy way to create a nice IVR (interactive voice response) system so you can have a fancy menu system for incoming calls.
3rd for this router. I'm using this as a router + qos + asterisk box for the in-laws. I set them up to have all IP phones connecting to this router and then the router registering with vitelity for phone service. Great setup and saves them a lot of money compared to the bells. The router has 128MB of ram and 32MB of flash so it is one of the most powerful and has the most space for adding stuff than most other routers. I also setup a vpn connection to my house and some custom routing so I can directly access their internal subnet from my computers and diagnose if necessary.
Router is flashed with tomato and then loaded with Optware in order to install asterisk and other addons. Here are some steps to get this done. One side item, the guide for optware has you install it on an external USB drive. But I installed it directly on the/jffs partition so you don't need to add a usb drive. The router has plenty of space to add data to it so I just used this. Also, if you want to do any custom linux commands in tomato, the root os doesn't preserve state after reboot. So be sure to put all the commands you want run in the web gui under administration->scripts. Custom routing commands will need to go there since tomato is limited in the custom routing you can do with the gui (no interface routing? bah)
--Install tomato: http://tomatousb.org/tut:installing-on-asus-rt-n16
--Install optware: http://tomatousb.org/tut:optware-installation
Soft errors increase as altitude increases. So you are more likely to get random bits in memory, the CPU, etc. flipped at altitude which could cause the device to lockup and require a reboot. Since these were trans-atlantic flights, you were in the air a long time and had an even higher chance of a soft error. If the kindle had ECC memory then this would be less of a concern. But who's going to pay for ECC memory in a e-reader? It's just not necessary. According to wikipedia, you are 1.3x more likely to have a cosmic-ray induced soft error for every 1000ft above sea level.
I'm a pretty deep sleeper but my brain has been trained to wake up to two different sounds, my name or my phone vibrating. I can't explain how that works but the sound of my phone vibrating (after 2-3 calls) will wake me up or someone calling out my name. I also notice that in normal settings my brain picks out the sound of my name in situations where I normally wouldn't be able to hear that person.
So train your brain to wake up to a vibrating pillow or some other quiet sound. This is similar to professional boxers that are still standing and punching while they are unconscious. It is not the same thing, but you can train your brain to do things when you are not fully conscious.
Being an engineer I definitely know the drive to want to do it yourself all the time. But when it comes to business, RESIST THE URGE! Just because you can doesn't mean it is a good business decision. Also, your architecture seems dated and not really future proof. Why not make your black boxes IP enabled? Create a standard IP API to control your black boxes and then just network everything. Then you create a web app to control your black boxes. You will be able to control your black boxes from your phone, a standard tablet attached to the black boxes, or from your computer. Why limit yourself to a single control panel and why waste time building and programming a custom control panel? Do you really want to support that custom control panel? Or would you rather buy a new tablet if the first one breaks and then go back to focusing on your black box magic.
I completely agree with this and I see it happen all the time. IMHO, the biggest issue with the government is that they always want to customize anything they buy. They'd be 10x better getting an off the shelf product and spending 1/5 the cost and 1/5 the time implementing the product. Maybe it doesn't give them everything they want but the reliability, cost and time to implement will more than outweigh the costs of going custom. Also, if anything goes wrong then they can pick up and move to another product. Once you go down the customized route, you are stuck with that product and vendor for a long time to come.
Also, how about we give incentives to government agencies to not use all of their grants? Right now they have no incentive to use only a portion of a grant. Once an agency is given money from the state/federal government for a project, they feel the need to spend it all otherwise they will lose that money. Don't forget that the money they received can only be used for the specific purpose it was requested. So they are going to spend it all in that one place when it might make more sense to put it in other places or...give it back unused! Let's also not forget that it's easy to find out how much money an agency received on a particular grant. So guess what the vendors bid on a project with a known budget? Even worse, so many agencies state the amount of money they have for a project. The bidding then becomes a competition of how close can you get to the grant value while still being under your competitors.
My comments were mostly about the automated US based shops that come closer to price parity with non-US based shops. The shops that do DRC checks in the US are expensive and are not price competitive with outside shops that do DRC checks.
Our setup is automated - your files are processed as sent without design review.
This quote is from a fully automated pcb fabrication site, pcbexpress. It's super fast and very cheap but the files are made as is without the DRC checks. https://www.pcbexpress.com/products/order1.php?type=4. In the end, you will need to choose two items from this list: fast, cheap, full DRC review.
Yup. It's still more expensive than shops outside the US. PCBExpress is a division of theirs and is cheaper than sunstone but more expensive than outside the US, but super fast!
It's great to see how PCB boards are made. I create lots of PCB designs but never get a chance to see how they are actually made. It's refreshing and cool to see that part of the process.
However, the article partially reads like an advertisement. I've used the mentioned company and their pricing is good when comparing US based PCB fab shops. If they are going to advertise on slashdot, I'll share my experiences with different fabs. I've found the best deals are with non-US companies: http://www.bittele.com/PCB_Pricing.asp. Disclaimer, I don't work for this company but I use them all the time. I found them to be the best deal and offer great service. Most US fab shops don't even look at your boards before building them. These guys have extensive capabilities, great prices, and also review your design. The only downside is that the lead-time is not as fast as some of the automated PCB fab shops in the US. But most of the time spent on a board is not on the actual PCB fabrication, it's the assembly that takes a long time. Also, completely automating a prototype assembly isn't exactly feasible: hand placed parts, BGA placements, BGA xrays, setting up hundreds of different parts to be automatically placed on a board, etc. Note, this only applies to prototype PCB and PCBA. Production builds are a different ball-game.
Xilinx already supports this. You can load multiple different.bit files (fully compiled FPGA file format) into flash and then just reprogram the FPGA as needed on the fly. Also, FPGAs are great for general glue logic and massive individual IO connections. They allow you to have very low level control over signals that is just not the same in a microprocessor. They will definitely not replace a microprocessor for general program flow but they give you much tighter control over signals and signal timing. Have the FPGA do the low level things then punt it to the processor.
Although, it would be very nice to have an FPGA that ran faster than ~400-500Mhz. High performance FPGAs really require super wide buses and routing that is a nightmare. A chip running at 3x the speed would mean my buses could be 1/3 the width to handle the same bandwidth. You'd be surprised at the end of the day just what percent of your chip is dedicated to routing and buffering between clock domains when you deal with multiple 128-256+bit buses.
I completely agree. The way Motorola is going with locking down their phones, they will soon become the next Sony. Why can't we just use the products we buy any way we want to?
I used gorrilla racks as a cheap work bench. A single rack comes in two parts so i can put them side by side for a larger desk space. The surface is also treated to withstand chemicals and a pretty heavy load. I put the shelves on the floor and then the top so that I could pull up a chair to the rack. Since this is for a hackerspace I assume you don't care that it looks like you are using a shelf for a desk. Plus, for $90 you really can't beat it. Also, I have no affiliation with gorillarack. I just work for a small company and don't want to pay $500+ for workbenches.
http://www.gorillarack.com/raptor/grz636245bdi-storage-rack-p-53.html
Four hours is definitely an improvement over a month. However, that does raise the question if the cost of the 4 hour or even 1 day service contract is worth it compared to the cost of stocking replacement parts at your own facility. Computers could then be repaired even faster and could even save you time and money. Rather than the IT staff coordinating with the manufacturer for getting replacements, the computer could already be fixed.
Also, building and repairing computers these days is really not that complicated (assuming you have a common build at your site). You could always just have spare computers pre-built and swap out the hard drive at the employee's desk. This way the down time would be near zero and then the IT department can take their time repairing the bad computer while the company doesn't lose productivity from the employee.
I worked for a very large corporation that leased all of their computers from a major supplier. Whenever something broke in the machines, they would send it out for repair and would get replacements 1 month later. So whenever the power supply died on my computer, it would take 1 month to replace it. The onsite techs couldn't do anything because the machines were leased. It was such a waste of money and time to not only lease the computers but then have your hands tied when it came to repairs.
It might look like you are saving thousands up front by buying PCs from another company, but factor in the time it takes to repair a computer and the lost productivity as a result and you will definitely build your own PCs and keep spare parts on hand. For a high paid engineer, a single day's worth of lost productivity more than covers the cost of spare parts.
Good points. However, when you start bringing friends into the equation, you are no longer ordering just 1 board and you are getting closer to a production (albeit a small production) order; thus the costs are definitely going to go down. So I do agree that it is a good deal but at a single board, costs are still relatively high. Your 100in2 board, in production, is going to drop to $5-10 vs the $100 so a 10 to 20x drop. Also, I mostly make 4+ layer boards so pcbexpress turns out to be slightly cheaper for me than goldpheonix.
I have gone through the quoting process and prototyping / production process with lots of PCB fabs and honestly the costs for prototyping a single unit are extraordinary compared to volume production. Be prepared to spend 20-30x for a single board vs. volume production. The problem with a single board is the tooling and setup costs associated with PCB manufacturing. Also, this ratio really exists for all parts of the market. I've done US manufacturing, China/Taiwan manufacturing, completely automated US manufacturing; it's all the same. There are some costs you just can't avoid when doing PCB manufacturing. Don't believe me, then check out the pricing from a completely automated PCB fab (this is one of the cheapest places for single unit PCB production. Yes, it is in the US but honestly, it is one of the cheapest for a single unit): http://pcbexpress.com/products/prices.php#4pricing
I completely agree. Imagine what the internet would be like if we were still stuck with dialup.... Any service requiring a decent amount of bandwidth just wasn't possible when bandwidth costs were through the roof. Youtube, hulu, online backup services, picture sharing, skype, cheap voip, etc. Providing a fast and cheap internet connection opens up the market for numerous other advances and technologies. This is identical to the introduction of our modern highway system. People probably wondered why you would want to drive thousands of miles to another city but it really opened up the market for trade (shipping), tourism, etc.
Create the infrastructure and then the businesses will follow.
As a poor college student, I setup my ATT phone to block SMS inbound and outbound (just call up the carrier and tell them you want it blocked). It worked great and I saved money until I realized any girl that is interested in you mainly wants to flirt via text. Needless to say, as soon as I discovered that I reactivated my SMS service very quickly.
However, your correction is still not an apples to apples comparison. As other posters have commented, comparing shielded nuclear waste to unshielded coal ash is not the same thing. Yes, one power plant may seem to have better shielding and containment efforts in place now, but the potential for disaster is still much higher with nuclear waste. If the shielding breaks you have a serious amount of radiation that is released into the atmosphere. Coal ash is already unshielded and really can't become much more radioactive. Also, my point was that the study didn't take into account leaks from power plants as the original article was talking about. If you compared a leaking nuclear power plant to coal ash I'm sure you would see a world of a difference in the level of radiation. This comparison is necessary because the article mentions "increasingly leaky, uninspected and unmaintained nuclear power plants". We can no longer compare nuclear power plants under their ideal operating conditions where no waste leaks.
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You didn't read all of my comment: "...rely on cameras to help determine where they are to correct for this error in the absence of gps but what if the cameras were blinded as well?"
I've seen those reports. But I'm guessing that's assuming it can still get a proper GPS signal. If you rely solely on expensive accelerometers, gyros, etc. without a gps signal then there's no way you are going to make it 50+ miles back to a safe landing zone without a significant amount of inaccuracy in your position. Lots of missiles rely on cameras to help determine where they are to correct for this error in the absence of gps, but what if the cameras were blinded as well? Blinding a cruise missile is pretty hard seeing how fast it is moving and that it is designed to hug the ground. But a stealth drone that is not supposed to be seen and flies at slow speeds and at a high altitude makes it easier to track than the missile (although its still probably hard).
Although, I must admit, if you had asked me three years ago if the signals to drones would be unencrypted I would have said that was impossible and they would definitely encrypted that channel. So maybe we give the US government and their contractors too much credit and this thing actually landed itself in Iranian territory...
This was reported that people were able to capture the video that was sent out by drones: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html
Hopefully they encrypted the control channel and just sent the video in the clear? Honestly, I've tried to think how they got their hands on this drone and hacking the control channel seems like the only possible way. Since the drone was undamaged they didn't shoot it down and it didn't just run out of gas. Even if they jammed the GPS receiver, there's no way the US would just land the drone. They would have it pre-programmed to circle until it ran out of gas then crash itself into the ground to make sure no one recovered it completely. They would just hope that they it either re-established a GPS fix and followed way points home or the control channel came back online and they could remotely control it before it ran out of fuel. So the only plausible explanation is that the control channel was hacked and it was safely landed. But in order to do that you would need to jam the satellite broadcast but allow your connection to be received by the plane. Maybe they have a plane flying above the drone that creates destructive interference with the satellite signal and then broadcasts it's own signal to the drone below? This would basically be a man in the middle attack against the drone. If you just jam the satellite, then the drone's receiver will also pick up the jammed signal and will have a hard time receiving your pirate broadcast. Or maybe you just send a set of spoofed commands to the drone, like land at xyz, then you jam the control signal so no one can cancel those commands.
Either that or this is a fake.
Personally, I'd still take a CYA stance in this situation. If you return the documents or tell anyone you have them you are admitting to a crime by proving that you took the documents and had them in your possession. This is really the worst case situation because you could be sued civilly and potentially have criminal charges brought against you. At this point you can only hope the company doesn't take action against you. Also, I believe that you are not blackmailing them for these documents but who's to say they believe that? What if they think you destroyed the original copies and then kept some for yourself. Then you make money by them coming back to you and getting paid as a consultant who just so happens to have copies of the missing documents. Your intentions don't matter; the law and what lawyers can prove matter. You are taking an insane amount of risk by keeping these documents and also by bringing them back. Why expose yourself to so much risk? Would the company do the same for you?
To the other posters that said these things happen and documents are accidentally left here or there: Intellectual property is an extremely valuable asset to any company. You are potentially holding on to something that is worth a lot of money to the company. If you were an accountant or say someone physically handling money, would you accidentally leave $100, $1,000 or more dollars at your house or the companies' money while you were counting those bills or handling checks? No way. You would make sure every cent was accounted for and returned to the company. Do you think intellectual property is any different? In many cases it is even worse because a single pdf or notebook could be worth millions. Before you take that notebook home in the future, check your company policy, are you even allowed to remove items like this from the company? Get written approval from your boss that you can remove these items and work on them from home. But make sure that If you are planning to sever ties with the company, search your computers and your files for company information and return them (assuming you had permission to take them in the first place. If you didn't, then you are back to the original problem). Once again, IANAL and this is not legal advice.
I'd be very careful in this situation. Even though you are supposedly "doing the company a favor" by smuggling the documents back in, were you even legally allowed to take the documents in the first place? Most employers have contracts or rules that state you can't remove documents from the office or that when you leave the company you must return all property to the company. Furthermore, it is most likely that this documentation was property of the company all along and in that case did you break any laws by removing it from the company and keeping it? IANAL but this is a very tricky situation. You may be doing good for the company now but you are profiting off of documents that you do not own and may not even have a legal right to possess.
Personally, I'd stick with just what's in my head and not keep any documents, files, etc. from a previous employer. It's just asking for trouble.
You are probably better off using google voice. GV lets you screen calls as necessary. Then your android phone can connect directly to GV and make calls through it.
I use asterisk for the in-laws so that incoming calls can ring all phones in the house at the same time and so they can also transfer calls to each phone in the house independently. Also, using a sip trunk to the voip provider allows them to have as many concurrent incoming and outgoing calls as the bandwidth provides on their internet connection. They just pay per minute for each call and not per line. Asterisk also allows multiple different DIDs to be forwarded to their house and ring the same phones. If I ever wanted to have a single DID ring only one phone it's pretty easy to change that as well. Also, asterisk can setup time-based ringing for lines, blacklisting, and lots of other things. But the main reason for asterisk is so that I can use low cost SIP trunk providers. Services that abstract away from SIP will charge you a lot more money.
However, configuring asterisk is not the easiest thing to pickup. It does give you complete control over the phone call and routing of the channel but getting it working perfectly takes some time. There are some guis that try to make it simple, like freepbx, trixbox, elastix, but I prefer a barebones asterisk install. If you learn how to configure the extensions and endpoints properly, you can have a lot of control over the system. You can even have incoming calls be passed to a perl or python script to control the flow of the call. It's an easy way to create a nice IVR (interactive voice response) system so you can have a fancy menu system for incoming calls.
3rd for this router. I'm using this as a router + qos + asterisk box for the in-laws. I set them up to have all IP phones connecting to this router and then the router registering with vitelity for phone service. Great setup and saves them a lot of money compared to the bells. The router has 128MB of ram and 32MB of flash so it is one of the most powerful and has the most space for adding stuff than most other routers. I also setup a vpn connection to my house and some custom routing so I can directly access their internal subnet from my computers and diagnose if necessary.
/jffs partition so you don't need to add a usb drive. The router has plenty of space to add data to it so I just used this. Also, if you want to do any custom linux commands in tomato, the root os doesn't preserve state after reboot. So be sure to put all the commands you want run in the web gui under administration->scripts. Custom routing commands will need to go there since tomato is limited in the custom routing you can do with the gui (no interface routing? bah)
Router is flashed with tomato and then loaded with Optware in order to install asterisk and other addons. Here are some steps to get this done. One side item, the guide for optware has you install it on an external USB drive. But I installed it directly on the
--Install tomato: http://tomatousb.org/tut:installing-on-asus-rt-n16
--Install optware: http://tomatousb.org/tut:optware-installation
Soft errors increase as altitude increases. So you are more likely to get random bits in memory, the CPU, etc. flipped at altitude which could cause the device to lockup and require a reboot. Since these were trans-atlantic flights, you were in the air a long time and had an even higher chance of a soft error. If the kindle had ECC memory then this would be less of a concern. But who's going to pay for ECC memory in a e-reader? It's just not necessary. According to wikipedia, you are 1.3x more likely to have a cosmic-ray induced soft error for every 1000ft above sea level.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_error
I'm a pretty deep sleeper but my brain has been trained to wake up to two different sounds, my name or my phone vibrating. I can't explain how that works but the sound of my phone vibrating (after 2-3 calls) will wake me up or someone calling out my name. I also notice that in normal settings my brain picks out the sound of my name in situations where I normally wouldn't be able to hear that person.
So train your brain to wake up to a vibrating pillow or some other quiet sound. This is similar to professional boxers that are still standing and punching while they are unconscious. It is not the same thing, but you can train your brain to do things when you are not fully conscious.
Being an engineer I definitely know the drive to want to do it yourself all the time. But when it comes to business, RESIST THE URGE! Just because you can doesn't mean it is a good business decision. Also, your architecture seems dated and not really future proof. Why not make your black boxes IP enabled? Create a standard IP API to control your black boxes and then just network everything. Then you create a web app to control your black boxes. You will be able to control your black boxes from your phone, a standard tablet attached to the black boxes, or from your computer. Why limit yourself to a single control panel and why waste time building and programming a custom control panel? Do you really want to support that custom control panel? Or would you rather buy a new tablet if the first one breaks and then go back to focusing on your black box magic.
Drill + Thermite. Lots of smoke but no more hard drive.
I completely agree with this and I see it happen all the time. IMHO, the biggest issue with the government is that they always want to customize anything they buy. They'd be 10x better getting an off the shelf product and spending 1/5 the cost and 1/5 the time implementing the product. Maybe it doesn't give them everything they want but the reliability, cost and time to implement will more than outweigh the costs of going custom. Also, if anything goes wrong then they can pick up and move to another product. Once you go down the customized route, you are stuck with that product and vendor for a long time to come.
Also, how about we give incentives to government agencies to not use all of their grants? Right now they have no incentive to use only a portion of a grant. Once an agency is given money from the state/federal government for a project, they feel the need to spend it all otherwise they will lose that money. Don't forget that the money they received can only be used for the specific purpose it was requested. So they are going to spend it all in that one place when it might make more sense to put it in other places or...give it back unused! Let's also not forget that it's easy to find out how much money an agency received on a particular grant. So guess what the vendors bid on a project with a known budget? Even worse, so many agencies state the amount of money they have for a project. The bidding then becomes a competition of how close can you get to the grant value while still being under your competitors.
Our setup is automated - your files are processed as sent without design review.
This quote is from a fully automated pcb fabrication site, pcbexpress. It's super fast and very cheap but the files are made as is without the DRC checks. https://www.pcbexpress.com/products/order1.php?type=4. In the end, you will need to choose two items from this list: fast, cheap, full DRC review.
Yup. It's still more expensive than shops outside the US. PCBExpress is a division of theirs and is cheaper than sunstone but more expensive than outside the US, but super fast!
It's great to see how PCB boards are made. I create lots of PCB designs but never get a chance to see how they are actually made. It's refreshing and cool to see that part of the process.
However, the article partially reads like an advertisement. I've used the mentioned company and their pricing is good when comparing US based PCB fab shops. If they are going to advertise on slashdot, I'll share my experiences with different fabs. I've found the best deals are with non-US companies: http://www.bittele.com/PCB_Pricing.asp. Disclaimer, I don't work for this company but I use them all the time. I found them to be the best deal and offer great service. Most US fab shops don't even look at your boards before building them. These guys have extensive capabilities, great prices, and also review your design. The only downside is that the lead-time is not as fast as some of the automated PCB fab shops in the US. But most of the time spent on a board is not on the actual PCB fabrication, it's the assembly that takes a long time. Also, completely automating a prototype assembly isn't exactly feasible: hand placed parts, BGA placements, BGA xrays, setting up hundreds of different parts to be automatically placed on a board, etc. Note, this only applies to prototype PCB and PCBA. Production builds are a different ball-game.
Xilinx already supports this. You can load multiple different .bit files (fully compiled FPGA file format) into flash and then just reprogram the FPGA as needed on the fly. Also, FPGAs are great for general glue logic and massive individual IO connections. They allow you to have very low level control over signals that is just not the same in a microprocessor. They will definitely not replace a microprocessor for general program flow but they give you much tighter control over signals and signal timing. Have the FPGA do the low level things then punt it to the processor.
Although, it would be very nice to have an FPGA that ran faster than ~400-500Mhz. High performance FPGAs really require super wide buses and routing that is a nightmare. A chip running at 3x the speed would mean my buses could be 1/3 the width to handle the same bandwidth. You'd be surprised at the end of the day just what percent of your chip is dedicated to routing and buffering between clock domains when you deal with multiple 128-256+bit buses.
I completely agree. The way Motorola is going with locking down their phones, they will soon become the next Sony. Why can't we just use the products we buy any way we want to?
I used gorrilla racks as a cheap work bench. A single rack comes in two parts so i can put them side by side for a larger desk space. The surface is also treated to withstand chemicals and a pretty heavy load. I put the shelves on the floor and then the top so that I could pull up a chair to the rack. Since this is for a hackerspace I assume you don't care that it looks like you are using a shelf for a desk. Plus, for $90 you really can't beat it. Also, I have no affiliation with gorillarack. I just work for a small company and don't want to pay $500+ for workbenches.
http://www.gorillarack.com/raptor/grz636245bdi-storage-rack-p-53.html
Four hours is definitely an improvement over a month. However, that does raise the question if the cost of the 4 hour or even 1 day service contract is worth it compared to the cost of stocking replacement parts at your own facility. Computers could then be repaired even faster and could even save you time and money. Rather than the IT staff coordinating with the manufacturer for getting replacements, the computer could already be fixed.
Also, building and repairing computers these days is really not that complicated (assuming you have a common build at your site). You could always just have spare computers pre-built and swap out the hard drive at the employee's desk. This way the down time would be near zero and then the IT department can take their time repairing the bad computer while the company doesn't lose productivity from the employee.
I worked for a very large corporation that leased all of their computers from a major supplier. Whenever something broke in the machines, they would send it out for repair and would get replacements 1 month later. So whenever the power supply died on my computer, it would take 1 month to replace it. The onsite techs couldn't do anything because the machines were leased. It was such a waste of money and time to not only lease the computers but then have your hands tied when it came to repairs.
It might look like you are saving thousands up front by buying PCs from another company, but factor in the time it takes to repair a computer and the lost productivity as a result and you will definitely build your own PCs and keep spare parts on hand. For a high paid engineer, a single day's worth of lost productivity more than covers the cost of spare parts.
Good points. However, when you start bringing friends into the equation, you are no longer ordering just 1 board and you are getting closer to a production (albeit a small production) order; thus the costs are definitely going to go down. So I do agree that it is a good deal but at a single board, costs are still relatively high. Your 100in2 board, in production, is going to drop to $5-10 vs the $100 so a 10 to 20x drop. Also, I mostly make 4+ layer boards so pcbexpress turns out to be slightly cheaper for me than goldpheonix.
I have gone through the quoting process and prototyping / production process with lots of PCB fabs and honestly the costs for prototyping a single unit are extraordinary compared to volume production. Be prepared to spend 20-30x for a single board vs. volume production. The problem with a single board is the tooling and setup costs associated with PCB manufacturing. Also, this ratio really exists for all parts of the market. I've done US manufacturing, China/Taiwan manufacturing, completely automated US manufacturing; it's all the same. There are some costs you just can't avoid when doing PCB manufacturing. Don't believe me, then check out the pricing from a completely automated PCB fab (this is one of the cheapest places for single unit PCB production. Yes, it is in the US but honestly, it is one of the cheapest for a single unit):
http://pcbexpress.com/products/prices.php#4pricing
I completely agree. Imagine what the internet would be like if we were still stuck with dialup.... Any service requiring a decent amount of bandwidth just wasn't possible when bandwidth costs were through the roof. Youtube, hulu, online backup services, picture sharing, skype, cheap voip, etc. Providing a fast and cheap internet connection opens up the market for numerous other advances and technologies. This is identical to the introduction of our modern highway system. People probably wondered why you would want to drive thousands of miles to another city but it really opened up the market for trade (shipping), tourism, etc.
Create the infrastructure and then the businesses will follow.
As a poor college student, I setup my ATT phone to block SMS inbound and outbound (just call up the carrier and tell them you want it blocked). It worked great and I saved money until I realized any girl that is interested in you mainly wants to flirt via text. Needless to say, as soon as I discovered that I reactivated my SMS service very quickly.
However, your correction is still not an apples to apples comparison. As other posters have commented, comparing shielded nuclear waste to unshielded coal ash is not the same thing. Yes, one power plant may seem to have better shielding and containment efforts in place now, but the potential for disaster is still much higher with nuclear waste. If the shielding breaks you have a serious amount of radiation that is released into the atmosphere. Coal ash is already unshielded and really can't become much more radioactive. Also, my point was that the study didn't take into account leaks from power plants as the original article was talking about. If you compared a leaking nuclear power plant to coal ash I'm sure you would see a world of a difference in the level of radiation. This comparison is necessary because the article mentions "increasingly leaky, uninspected and unmaintained nuclear power plants". We can no longer compare nuclear power plants under their ideal operating conditions where no waste leaks.