As with any great toy, there are limitations, but here is the low down for thoes who dont know about this little toy yet...
Out of the box its a PLC type system with three in's and three out's... It comes with two motors, two on/off "touch" sensors and one ir sensor... It also has (but not talked about) its own built in IR sensor which it can use but requires using some slightly more advanced programming languages than the one included.
There are all types of Visual Basic programs available, but thats all I have seen so far. The lego site talks briefly about it I belive.
There are also add ons available for it... a heat sensor, a rotational sensor and of course more motors.
The toy is pretty nice, but really requires some patience engineering the remaining bricks to do what you want, and as always, if you dont have some legos already, you will want to go and get a few kits, because you will be limited despite the large quantity of bricks included.
Well, with only a few measly days left before the end of the world as we know it... this could be trouble.
Apparently, places like IOWA (Idiots Out Wandering Around) have been told they will be without power for at least a week, which for anyone on one of the coasts of course means a giant Corn Shortage! But really folks, lets keep our heads...
I propose that we remove the head cheese from power over there at MTV, and be thankful that once the Y2K stuff is all over, that its another 8,000 years before someone starts with Y10K.
P.S. How come all the canned goods are sold out at my local grocery store? - it wouldn't have anything to do with a media hyped once in a few thousand year event would it?
At the chance of sounding overly optimistic, I think you could (do it under $500). I was looking at the documentation which came with my 64Bit All in wonder card....
I can set this thing to record (under windows) at specified times, and I can capture at some pretty good frame rates (30fps) (240x180) with 44Hz. 16Bit Stereo Sound. It did it when I built the machine which is a P2-400... which are pretty cheap now, all you really need is a big a** hard disk to put the stuff on, and a 40Gb is retailing for about $280 now at CompUSA...
As setup, it takes about 80Mb / Minute to store at thoes settings, so you are looking at about 8Hrs on a 40Gb Drive... if you drop the audio down you could gain another 8Hrs easily.
So I dont know that a $500 price tag is all that hard to come under... especialy if you are saving on things like monitors and winmodems.
As for grabbing the channel listings, they are all available online, you could have it grab it while you are online checking out/. for the latest and greatest shows to watch.
I think the worst part would be hacking the drivers to run the capture features under linux, then its just a few scripts to pull the information of the net, and a simple interface (web or x) to work as a front end.
Personaly, I don't think there is a need for it though, we watch too much television anyway. It would just be a fun project to add to the halls of geekdom.
Recipe for your own Tivo: Take one ATI All-in-Wonder video card 1 40Gb HD Mix in a little Linux and for kicks an IR port so you can set up a remote (or PDA) to run it (for the couch potatos or geeks!) Anyone who would like to contribute source?
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That would then put the Hair Dryer on the top ten list too which of course leads to big hair and the seventies...
All of this really leads to a time where polyester suits and disco ruled the day...
I feel that someone has gone vastly astray from reality on this one!
But when you have all the computer toys you want, and the ones you dont cost far more than a few hundred dollars, is it not worth it?
As with any great toy, there are limitations, but here is the low down for thoes who dont know about this little toy yet...
Out of the box its a PLC type system with three in's and three out's... It comes with two motors, two on/off "touch" sensors and one ir sensor... It also has (but not talked about) its own built in IR sensor which it can use but requires using some slightly more advanced programming languages than the one included.
There are all types of Visual Basic programs available, but thats all I have seen so far. The lego site talks briefly about it I belive.
There are also add ons available for it... a heat sensor, a rotational sensor and of course more motors.
The toy is pretty nice, but really requires some patience engineering the remaining bricks to do what you want, and as always, if you dont have some legos already, you will want to go and get a few kits, because you will be limited despite the large quantity of bricks included.
Hope this helps clear some stuff up.
Well, with only a few measly days left before the end of the world as we know it... this could be trouble.
Apparently, places like IOWA (Idiots Out Wandering Around) have been told they will be without power for at least a week, which for anyone on one of the coasts of course means a giant Corn Shortage! But really folks, lets keep our heads...
I propose that we remove the head cheese from power over there at MTV, and be thankful that once the Y2K stuff is all over, that its another 8,000 years before someone starts with Y10K.
P.S. How come all the canned goods are sold out at my local grocery store? - it wouldn't have anything to do with a media hyped once in a few thousand year event would it?
At the chance of sounding overly optimistic, I think you could (do it under $500). I was looking at the documentation which came with my 64Bit All in wonder card....
I can set this thing to record (under windows) at specified times, and I can capture at some pretty good frame rates (30fps) (240x180) with 44Hz. 16Bit Stereo Sound. It did it when I built the machine which is a P2-400... which are pretty cheap now, all you really need is a big a** hard disk to put the stuff on, and a 40Gb is retailing for about $280 now at CompUSA...
As setup, it takes about 80Mb / Minute to store at thoes settings, so you are looking at about 8Hrs on a 40Gb Drive... if you drop the audio down you could gain another 8Hrs easily.
So I dont know that a $500 price tag is all that hard to come under... especialy if you are saving on things like monitors and winmodems.
As for grabbing the channel listings, they are all available online, you could have it grab it while you are online checking out /. for the latest and greatest shows to watch.
I think the worst part would be hacking the drivers to run the capture features under linux, then its just a few scripts to pull the information of the net, and a simple interface (web or x) to work as a front end.
Personaly, I don't think there is a need for it though, we watch too much television anyway. It would just be a fun project to add to the halls of geekdom.
Recipe for your own Tivo:
Take one ATI All-in-Wonder video card
1 40Gb HD
Mix in a little Linux and for kicks an IR port so you can set up a remote (or PDA) to run it (for the couch potatos or geeks!) Anyone who would like to contribute source?