Having built my own plane (https://sites.google.com/site/tomscozypage/) it is something ANYONE can do. Well, not anyone, especially anyone who would rather tell us all that they can't do stuff, but anyone who is willing to spend a couple years out in their garage, basement, or whatever workshop you have getting stuff done. It is not a risky venture, if you either follow the plans, or do reasonable engineering (if you know that discipline) when designing your own.
Any avocation can be expensive. Sure you can pick up fishing for like $15 for a rod and reel at Walmart, but in a couple years, after the boat and SUV purchase, you are talking about real money. Very capable airplanes can be bought (yes factory built even) for the cost of a good used car ($15K probably for a 2 seater). Learn to fly in your own airplane, with a good instructor, and you can learn for very little.
The medical requirements are minimal, and if you are willing to stay with a 2 seater aircraft and not really high performace (Light Sport Aircraft category) you only need a drivers license as your medical certificate. Even a 3rd class medical (if you want an airplane with higher performance or carrying more than 2 passengers, you need that) can be passed by anyone who is willing to get off their butt a couple times a week and move around. (if you want to fly for money, you need a 2nd class medical, and if you want to be a captain of an airliner you'll need a 1st class medical with the whole EKG and all).
The inexpensive airplanes aren't made anymore, Steve Witman designed some wonderful inexpensive fast! airplanes (tailwind as an example). Long-eze was maybe a peak of recent plans designs, by the man, Burt Rutan. Kitplanes magazine does annual issues of various kit offerings, as well a plans designs. Wicks and Aircraft Spruce are reliable suppliers.
The EAA is a little shifty supporting the home builders, but have been the most reliable for over 50 years. The EAA chapter organization is probably the best support group in the world. Use the resourcfes available, don't do it alone. There are plenty of resources available, from tech counselors to flight advisors. Yes you can fly an airplane you built yourself, or you can have someone else fly it for you.
First it was D*Star, those goofy french are making our proprietary stuff illegal. Now we hear HDMI is dead, this new DRM crap will replace it.
Puleze will someone with some common sense filter these articles, get 'em out of the front page, and let the technical people make technically necessary products so we can have progress.
I am tired of people taking working stuff, making it worse, and blaming everyone for not buying into their stupid ideas.
I've built many robots, (Hero-1, other homebuilt ones, etc). I've been involved with robot clubs since the early 80s. Very little has changed!
My first robot was run off a parallel card plugged into my Heathkit H-8. simple h-bridge some bumpers, and I was set. worked pretty good but the dang cord was a problem.
The next robot had an on board Z80 processor. It also had a CRT and a dozen batteries. It weighed a ton, used relays and transistors to control the motor.
The Hero had an on board 6809 (I guess one of the accessories had a second 6800 I think, so technically it was 2).
I used various 8 bitters for many other robots, always trying to solve the power problem, finding more and more efficient processors, so I could use less battery.
I switched to a tinyboard (8088) for one, it ran DR-DOS, and turbo pascal!
Even the handyboard processor was good, and has a great library (interactive C).
Basic stamps have come and gone for various projects.
Aurdrino's are pretty current.
Which one of the above processors will run anything from M$? I don't think any. Right, all 8 bit processors. I see very few robots with more than an 8 bitter even in the 21st century!
Someone needs to convince the robot builders to switch to 32 bit processors (ARM, maybe beagle board, or anything else) and then there *might* be a market for an OS that runs robots. Trouble is, it'll be Linux or Android running it, since the robot builders are a little more scrappy.
They already fly slower. A 737-NG was designed to fly at Mach 0.72 to 0.78 (some will argue 0.82, but they are usually grumpy old guys).
Currently many of the airlines prefer to use cost index (IE CI20). see: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/tech_ops/read.main/45399/
Most passengers don't notice it, but in crowded airspace (IE New York TRACON) the controllers hate it.
First Microsoft has a lot of explaining to do as why anyone should license the FAT file system.
TomTom didn't write the code, they licensed it from, well not sure. They are following the gpl, and that is the end of the story. Microsoft needs to be talk to the licensor, not suing one of their own customers, besides.
Microsoft didn't learn squat from their puppet SCO.
This isn't the strategy of a company in it for the long haul.
Back in the day Mattel used to sell spy ware infested programs (Printshop). It was hard to use and just funky as can be. It got better over the years, but the spyware would make me not want it.
My daughter got my boys a Fisher Price digital arts and crafts studio (more Mattel software). It barely installed (see amazon reviews, not too many people can get the POS installed). Wow what a pile of crap. Hardly usable. The kids can draw their pictures but can't print them, it takes tricks to save, print and recover them. Way less than intuitive. Makes it obvious they don't think kids understand computers, turns the multitasking machine back to one task at a time DOS like.
Okey so now they think they can build a game that will be as popular as some people who get the net. Good luck with that. Watch it be built by committee, with featuritis explosis (every feature a group marketing dorks can imagine added on). It will be unusable, to the point where people will complain, and marketing will blame everyone else.
They should shut up, and pay the kids who know what they are doing, and keep marketing out.
The first couple minutes really suck. Those SRB's shake bad. Once they burn out, the ride is really smooth. Solid rockets are that way, I am sorry, but you can't have fuel moving up the tube and the flame following it and have a smooth ride. Think of the solid fuel, it doesn't move, only the pressure. The farther it moves up the more the pressure changes here and there.
POGO is something else. That is more from liquid fuel sloshing around, not presenting and even pressure. As the fuel is falling it adds more weight causing more thrust, and as the fuel splashes up, then there is less weight and pressure, meaning the engines are working to compensate.
Someone will come up with something to make the ride some what tolerable. I don't think I'd ever want to ride that big long SRB into orbit. That will be more jarring 8 minutes of your life!
ick.
This robot is maybe made by Heathkit (a subsidary of Zenith, which is really LG, at least in the US for TVs and such), but the design is Whitebox. The top of the line Linux one is $1000 less than the windows version:
It does seem the Heathkit is out of touch, but it is more likely some school administration that would want to buy some of these. Since the administrators don't do any real computer work, other than write Word documents, and do budgets on Excel, to them every nail needs the M$ hammer. They want to teach a software class, well, the old M$ hammer works good for them, they will stick with it. Even many teachers are afraid of anything they can't buy at WorstBuy or the Apple store.
IF these are reliable, and white box can take care of them, then confidence may grow, and people will buy the linux versions to replace the buggy M$ ones. It could happen.
I have an N770 and love it. I've been wanting a n800, but there hasn't been a strong incentive to upgrade. No I can't watch YouTube on the 770, but supposedly can on the 800 (and probably on the 810), but I don't spend much time watching YouTube anyway. Actually, I don't use the device much on line. I am glad it has WiFi, it makes uploading songs easier. My 2 main uses for it are:
1. MP3 player - Yea sure it isn't an 80GB device, and I have to mix up my songs once in a while manually. Acutally I think the current mix of songs I have crammed into 1GB is the same for the last 6 months. No big deal, at least I have it all on one device.
2. GPS display - I just moved from Minneapolis to Dallas. I still havn't found the best way home, but using the GPS, at least I know when I am heading north or east like I should be. Plus if I want to find somewhere new, I can get a route plotted, and follow it. New restuarant, new hobby store, whatever, I be seriously in a world of hurt without it.
You are supposed to be able to use a bluetooth phone to connect to the internet remotely, I haven't got it to work, but I did load opera mini on my phone for when I must know something on the road. So I figure between my phone and the 770, I am a pretty well connected nerd.
The future is coming fast, and the sold spectrum is a problem.
Imagine the day you are carrying a little device in your pocket. This device is an all in one thing. It has a software defined radio in it, a reasonable sized display (3in diagonal maybe, 800x600 pixels?), some kind of keyboard, a microphone and a speaker. You can make phone calls, instant message, and almost any other form of communication. The infrastucture is WiFi, WiMax, CDMA, GSM, 3/4G, point to point, HDTV, AM, FM, XM, Sirius, GPS, pager, bluetooth and zigbee on whatever frequency is appropriate (remember software defined radio, it can do all of this in software).
You pick up the device, it has an address. You wish to communicate with someone else, they have an address. The device knows them, and their address. Through the infrastructure, Your device can find their device, picking the most suitable communication mechanism available. If they are in the same room, it'll do point to point, if they are in the same building, it'll do WiFi. Across town, maybe your device will do CDMA, and theirs will do GSM. Want to send email to someone, it'll figure out a route.
The only way this will work, is opening up everything. The spectrum, especially will have to be unencumbered (not owned). The carriers will have to act like carriers, accepting these all purpose devices, without a monopoly.
Sure verizon and ATT will scream, it isn't good for anyone. But actually it will work in their and our best interest. Their infrastructure could be more efficiently used (won't have to handle calls to the guy in the next cube). Sure we may have to pay what it costs to utilize their network instead of a flat fee, with silly gimicks. Initial purchase price will a little high (device not bundled with the service). They won't have to service the devices, or they could, if they build their own.
To get here, the spectrum that has already been sold will have to be returned to the rightful owners (us), and that will be expensive!!! The government could claim eminant domain, but that would probably be even less popular, and the lawsuits would probably cost even more money. We need to stop selling spectrum NOW!
Quit linking to Forbes, and probably all the other PC mags out there, this is only a headline grabber.
If M$ had anything, they wouldn't be saying anything, they'd be doing something. They'd show up at IBM HQ and ask for $5billion, they'd show up at Sun and ask for $1billion, they show up at Exxon/Mobile and ask for a nickle for every gallon of gas sold.
If they go to the weaker press, like Forbes and the PC mags and wave their arms claiming that 'evil Linux is infringing on our IP and we're gonna sue' wow! they get all the press. So to a know nothing IT director, who only reads headlines, he/she says, "well, we don't want to get sued, we better buy that microsoft crap again, even though it isn't worth what they charge us".
It is barely even FUD. It is weak FUD at best. Most folks know the SCO thing imploded (or is imploding). M$ is looking for the next bunch of headlines to keep their biggest customers in their pocket.
As far as *nix working like windows, remember that Unix is at least 20 years older than Windows, they do many of the same things. It may be a coincidence that they do, but more likely the way windows does things, was probably based on work already in Unix.
Look and feel issues it could be that windows does something this way or that, and one of the window managers (in *nix the window manager is a separate program) may have features that look like MSWindows, but M$ didn't invent many of those features, they were taken from Apple, Xerox, Sun or some other organization. Look and Feel lawsuits keep getting taken out of court, it'll be tough to make anyone believe that M$ has a patent on something that is not eye-candy.
As far as open office, or any other productivity programs go. It'll be hard to say that M$ has a patent on some fundamental feature. Eye candy, or maybe some non critical feature maybe, but most of that was around long before M$ ever started selling Word. Dedicated word processors from the 70s did amazing page layout and spell and grammar checking, for having no memory or anything.
Relax folks, there is nothing to prove or disprove. M$ doesn't have patents on Linux.
Slashdot Mirror
Having built my own plane (https://sites.google.com/site/tomscozypage/) it is something ANYONE can do. Well, not anyone, especially anyone who would rather tell us all that they can't do stuff, but anyone who is willing to spend a couple years out in their garage, basement, or whatever workshop you have getting stuff done. It is not a risky venture, if you either follow the plans, or do reasonable engineering (if you know that discipline) when designing your own.
Any avocation can be expensive. Sure you can pick up fishing for like $15 for a rod and reel at Walmart, but in a couple years, after the boat and SUV purchase, you are talking about real money. Very capable airplanes can be bought (yes factory built even) for the cost of a good used car ($15K probably for a 2 seater). Learn to fly in your own airplane, with a good instructor, and you can learn for very little.
The medical requirements are minimal, and if you are willing to stay with a 2 seater aircraft and not really high performace (Light Sport Aircraft category) you only need a drivers license as your medical certificate. Even a 3rd class medical (if you want an airplane with higher performance or carrying more than 2 passengers, you need that) can be passed by anyone who is willing to get off their butt a couple times a week and move around. (if you want to fly for money, you need a 2nd class medical, and if you want to be a captain of an airliner you'll need a 1st class medical with the whole EKG and all).
The inexpensive airplanes aren't made anymore, Steve Witman designed some wonderful inexpensive fast! airplanes (tailwind as an example). Long-eze was maybe a peak of recent plans designs, by the man, Burt Rutan. Kitplanes magazine does annual issues of various kit offerings, as well a plans designs. Wicks and Aircraft Spruce are reliable suppliers.
The EAA is a little shifty supporting the home builders, but have been the most reliable for over 50 years. The EAA chapter organization is probably the best support group in the world. Use the resourcfes available, don't do it alone. There are plenty of resources available, from tech counselors to flight advisors. Yes you can fly an airplane you built yourself, or you can have someone else fly it for you.
Lets see, I am typing this in Linux, on my desktop at work.
I first saw the story on my android phone, running Linux.
There was a WiFi router that was running linux that sent it to my android phone.
Nope, not the year of the desktop.
First it was D*Star, those goofy french are making our proprietary stuff illegal. Now we hear HDMI is dead, this new DRM crap will replace it.
Puleze will someone with some common sense filter these articles, get 'em out of the front page, and let the technical people make technically necessary products so we can have progress.
I am tired of people taking working stuff, making it worse, and blaming everyone for not buying into their stupid ideas.
I've built many robots, (Hero-1, other homebuilt ones, etc). I've been involved with robot clubs since the early 80s. Very little has changed!
My first robot was run off a parallel card plugged into my Heathkit H-8. simple h-bridge some bumpers, and I was set. worked pretty good but the dang cord was a problem.
The next robot had an on board Z80 processor. It also had a CRT and a dozen batteries. It weighed a ton, used relays and transistors to control the motor.
The Hero had an on board 6809 (I guess one of the accessories had a second 6800 I think, so technically it was 2).
I used various 8 bitters for many other robots, always trying to solve the power problem, finding more and more efficient processors, so I could use less battery.
I switched to a tinyboard (8088) for one, it ran DR-DOS, and turbo pascal!
Even the handyboard processor was good, and has a great library (interactive C).
Basic stamps have come and gone for various projects.
Aurdrino's are pretty current.
Which one of the above processors will run anything from M$? I don't think any. Right, all 8 bit processors. I see very few robots with more than an 8 bitter even in the 21st century!
Someone needs to convince the robot builders to switch to 32 bit processors (ARM, maybe beagle board, or anything else) and then there *might* be a market for an OS that runs robots. Trouble is, it'll be Linux or Android running it, since the robot builders are a little more scrappy.
They already fly slower. A 737-NG was designed to fly at Mach 0.72 to 0.78 (some will argue 0.82, but they are usually grumpy old guys). Currently many of the airlines prefer to use cost index (IE CI20). see: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/tech_ops/read.main/45399/ Most passengers don't notice it, but in crowded airspace (IE New York TRACON) the controllers hate it.
First Microsoft has a lot of explaining to do as why anyone should license the FAT file system.
TomTom didn't write the code, they licensed it from, well not sure. They are following the gpl, and that is the end of the story. Microsoft needs to be talk to the licensor, not suing one of their own customers, besides.
Microsoft didn't learn squat from their puppet SCO.
This isn't the strategy of a company in it for the long haul.
Back in the day Mattel used to sell spy ware infested programs (Printshop). It was hard to
use and just funky as can be. It got better over the years, but the spyware would make me
not want it.
My daughter got my boys a Fisher Price digital arts and crafts studio (more Mattel software).
It barely installed (see amazon reviews, not too many people can get the POS installed). Wow
what a pile of crap. Hardly usable. The kids can draw their pictures but can't print them, it
takes tricks to save, print and recover them. Way less than intuitive. Makes it obvious they
don't think kids understand computers, turns the multitasking machine back to one task at a time
DOS like.
Okey so now they think they can build a game that will be as popular as some people who get the
net. Good luck with that. Watch it be built by committee, with featuritis explosis (every
feature a group marketing dorks can imagine added on). It will be unusable, to the point where
people will complain, and marketing will blame everyone else.
They should shut up, and pay the kids who know what they are doing, and keep marketing out.
The first couple minutes really suck. Those SRB's shake bad. Once they burn out, the ride is really smooth. Solid rockets are that way, I am sorry, but you can't have fuel moving up the tube and the flame following it and have a smooth ride. Think of the solid fuel, it doesn't move, only the pressure. The farther it moves up the more the pressure changes here and there. POGO is something else. That is more from liquid fuel sloshing around, not presenting and even pressure. As the fuel is falling it adds more weight causing more thrust, and as the fuel splashes up, then there is less weight and pressure, meaning the engines are working to compensate. Someone will come up with something to make the ride some what tolerable. I don't think I'd ever want to ride that big long SRB into orbit. That will be more jarring 8 minutes of your life! ick.
This robot is maybe made by Heathkit (a subsidary of Zenith, which is really LG, at least in the US for TVs and such), but the design is Whitebox. The top of the line Linux one is $1000 less than the windows version:
http://www.robotshop.ca/home/suppliers/white-box-robotics-en/white-box-robotics-linux-914-pc-bot.html
It does seem the Heathkit is out of touch, but it is more likely some school administration that would want to buy some of these. Since the administrators don't do any real computer work, other than write Word documents, and do budgets on Excel, to them every nail needs the M$ hammer. They want to teach a software class, well, the old M$ hammer works good for them, they will stick with it. Even many teachers are afraid of anything they can't buy at WorstBuy or the Apple store.
IF these are reliable, and white box can take care of them, then confidence may grow, and people will buy the linux versions to replace the buggy M$ ones. It could happen.
I have an N770 and love it. I've been wanting a n800, but there hasn't been a strong incentive to upgrade. No I can't watch YouTube on the 770, but supposedly can on the 800 (and probably on the 810), but I don't spend much time watching YouTube anyway. Actually, I don't use the device much on line. I am glad it has WiFi, it makes uploading songs easier. My 2 main uses for it are:
1. MP3 player - Yea sure it isn't an 80GB device, and I have to mix up my songs once in a while manually. Acutally I think the current mix of songs I have crammed into 1GB is the same for the last 6 months. No big deal, at least I have it all on one device.
2. GPS display - I just moved from Minneapolis to Dallas. I still havn't found the best way home, but using the GPS, at least I know when I am heading north or east like I should be. Plus if I want to find somewhere new, I can get a route plotted, and follow it. New restuarant, new hobby store, whatever, I be seriously in a world of hurt without it.
You are supposed to be able to use a bluetooth phone to connect to the internet remotely, I haven't got it to work, but I did load opera mini on my phone for when I must know something on the road. So I figure between my phone and the 770, I am a pretty well connected nerd.
The future is coming fast, and the sold spectrum is a problem.
Imagine the day you are carrying a little device in your pocket. This device is an all in one thing. It has a software defined radio in it, a reasonable sized display (3in diagonal maybe, 800x600 pixels?), some kind of keyboard, a microphone and a speaker. You can make phone calls, instant message, and almost any other form of communication. The infrastucture is WiFi, WiMax, CDMA, GSM, 3/4G, point to point, HDTV, AM, FM, XM, Sirius, GPS, pager, bluetooth and zigbee on whatever frequency is appropriate (remember software defined radio, it can do all of this in software).
You pick up the device, it has an address. You wish to communicate with someone else, they have an address. The device knows them, and their address. Through the infrastructure, Your device can find their device, picking the most suitable communication mechanism available. If they are in the same room, it'll do point to point, if they are in the same building, it'll do WiFi. Across town, maybe your device will do CDMA, and theirs will do GSM. Want to send email to someone, it'll figure out a route.
The only way this will work, is opening up everything. The spectrum, especially will have to be unencumbered (not owned). The carriers will have to act like carriers, accepting these all purpose devices, without a monopoly.
Sure verizon and ATT will scream, it isn't good for anyone. But actually it will work in their and our best interest. Their infrastructure could be more efficiently used (won't have to handle calls to the guy in the next cube). Sure we may have to pay what it costs to utilize their network instead of a flat fee, with silly gimicks. Initial purchase price will a little high (device not bundled with the service). They won't have to service the devices, or they could, if they build their own.
To get here, the spectrum that has already been sold will have to be returned to the rightful owners (us), and that will be expensive!!! The government could claim eminant domain, but that would probably be even less popular, and the lawsuits would probably cost even more money. We need to stop selling spectrum NOW!
Quit linking to Forbes, and probably all the other PC mags out there, this
is only a headline grabber.
If M$ had anything, they wouldn't be saying anything, they'd be doing something.
They'd show up at IBM HQ and ask for $5billion, they'd show up at Sun and ask
for $1billion, they show up at Exxon/Mobile and ask for a nickle for every gallon
of gas sold.
If they go to the weaker press, like Forbes and the PC mags and wave their arms
claiming that 'evil Linux is infringing on our IP and we're gonna sue' wow!
they get all the press. So to a know nothing IT director, who only reads
headlines, he/she says, "well, we don't want to get sued, we better buy that
microsoft crap again, even though it isn't worth what they charge us".
It is barely even FUD. It is weak FUD at best. Most folks know the SCO thing
imploded (or is imploding). M$ is looking for the next bunch of headlines to
keep their biggest customers in their pocket.
As far as *nix working like windows, remember that Unix is at least 20 years
older than Windows, they do many of the same things. It may be a coincidence
that they do, but more likely the way windows does things, was probably based
on work already in Unix.
Look and feel issues it could be that windows does something this way or that,
and one of the window managers (in *nix the window manager is a separate program)
may have features that look like MSWindows, but M$ didn't invent many of those
features, they were taken from Apple, Xerox, Sun or some other organization. Look
and Feel lawsuits keep getting taken out of court, it'll be tough to make anyone
believe that M$ has a patent on something that is not eye-candy.
As far as open office, or any other productivity programs go. It'll be hard
to say that M$ has a patent on some fundamental feature. Eye candy, or maybe
some non critical feature maybe, but most of that was around long before M$
ever started selling Word. Dedicated word processors from the 70s did amazing
page layout and spell and grammar checking, for having no memory or anything.
Relax folks, there is nothing to prove or disprove. M$ doesn't have patents on
Linux.