If you have lots of time and virtually no capitol, maybe you could end up saving a few hundred bucks by hosting with a raspi, getting a static IP (and maybe even DNS entry if fancy), using atmegas (with requisite ancillary circuitry), relays from radio shack, custom dsp on sensors, your own home grown datastructures (and database), etc ad nausuem. And dont forget it will probably be dangerous and ugly.
I wrote a little program that can do a handful of your requirements and be hosted on a raspi. I used x10 for lights because 'socket rockets' can be obtained for under 10 a piece, and infrared+arduino for tvs, window shakers etc. https://github.com/dandroid88/.... It has the scheduling requirements and is pretty easy to write an extension for if you are looking for something fun.
Alternatively, you could drop $400 bucks or less and get everything set up in a couple days at most without paying for a monthly subscription with Wink/Smartthings/etc. Its simply time/money
Echonest (startup in boston) has some libs on github for audio fingerprinting and retrievel. That solves part of it, but the labeling seems like it might be the tricky part. As far as how to quickly search, yeah maybe elasticsearch, but it might not really be needed as the number of songs is pretty finite.
A project of mine (https://github.com/dandroid88/webmote) attempts to serve as a bridge for some less connected, older technologies to be controlled by newer things like my smartphone. For instance, my home entertainment system, a hodge podge of new and old responds to IR (each with their own remote). My project allows one to control any of these devices from any device with internet connectivity and a browser so that I can turn off Glee (my fiance's fav) from the bathroom, lol. Its a plugin architecture that also supports some X10 so that I can turn lights on and off etc. On the newer end, it supports newer things like XBMC control and a few other soon to be uploaded additions. If you are looking to bridge the new and the old and have a rasbpi or server you can run it on I welcome you to try it out. It requires some simple arduino construction but that shouldn't be too difficult.
In high school (public) and college (private) we used metric. Sure if I go to the hardware store its not metric but who cares, its not a huge deal. Schools already focus on metric in the US, despite what you Canadians think.
When I have been to the bar area it sure does seem nice compared the midwest. mountains, ocean... If you are at all into the outdoors the midwest pretty much sucks between november and april. Then when it warms up a bit there is well - lots of corn? Yes the cost of living is lower, but I might argue so is the quality.
*Also, the WSJ report was based on glass door right (too lazy to go look)? I find glassdoor doesn't do a good job of ensuring that people report their salary and title combination accurately. For a lot of companies there are generic software developers that could have been listed as software dev1, software dev2 and vice versa. Not saying the number is wrong, i don't know, I am just hesitant to take it them too seriously. Also, the bonuses that googlers get paid seem to be quite high (again according to glassdoor) - most places won't do anything similar even adjusted for regional COL variation.
I am in chicago and it is fun for the midwest but if my fiance would let me I would probably go running to either coast...
I am not sure how to feel about a few of these issues but at the same time clearly the school board has/will have money issues. Does anyone on slashdot know what kinds of computer systems they use? I went to school in a large school district in south Florida and everything was Windows, with as many expensive Microsoft productivity programs as possible, of which no one really used. It seems like an easy to use Linux distro and open/libre/google docs office program would be more than adequate for most schools needs and would seriously free up some money in the budget. Does anyone have any insight into Linux/open source software in public schools, particularly Chicago Public Schools?
I don't really understand who thought that hitting alt was a good idea? I have given up caring about my desktop environment out of frustration (just learned to love my terminal) but I really was pissed after trying gnome3 and not having panel applets, especially with how easy they were to add/remove. Having cpu/network monitor was nice, all the other goofy ones were kinda fun. It just seemed like such a winning feature and they canned it. I refused to google for advice on how to shutdown, so instead i installed a new interface...I would no longer even try a gnome OS.
I haven't read the article, only the/. summary, but I would venture to say that when they say 10 chords they are not talking about chords like A minor and B minor (really the same chord just transposed) but instead something like a first inversion minor chord or 2nd inversion neapolitan chord, etc. This would make more sense from a music theory perspective because regardless of the key (particular relevant for listeners without perfect pitch) the intervalic relationship defines what a chord sounds like. Whether it is an A minor or B minor chord is hard to tell for people with extensive training but in 1 minute most people could be trained to differentiate between major and minor. As far as the guitar concept you might be right, however I thought you could use some kind of clamp to change keys easily?
Right, but doesn't the average still need to be the same (again neglecting evaporation)? otherwise the lake would eventually be growing or shrinking...
"It would be even worse if we weren't also locking up lots of water from rivers behind dams like the Hoover Dam."
- Isn't the rate at which it leaves the lake the same as if the dam hadn't been there (with maybe the exception of evaporation...), just with a delay? My understanding was that dams affect latency but not throughput...
Looking at getting a job right out of engineering school. Coming from a good school (top 15) with a high GPA (> 3.5). Looks to be easy. I don't really feel like my search is representative of what an average engineering grad deals with but it doesn't really seem that atypical. From what I know from friends back at the state school I almost went to they are getting good paying jobs, no prob. So is there a shortage of jobs? - I dunno, but all these ppl on slashdot are saying yes and all these ppl are saying no... I will say though after a few internships that there is extremely high variability in the capabilities of my fellow engineers. Some are good at hacking - really fast learners, can make anything work and understand anything and everything with ease but their work still ends up a little sloppy. There are some who are slower but put out solid work. Some that can do produce quantity and quality. Some that don't seem to do/know/understand anything and I can't figure out how they got hired.
With respect to the lawyer > MBA > engineer comments - that unfortunately is the feeling I get inside even though deep down somewhere inside I know that I like building useful and cool things. Something that always disappointed me growing up was that no one else built things. Growing up I built countless things, some stupid some awesome - but I did it because I got some internal satisfaction. I could train myself with books, the internet and ppl. I looked in middle school and high school for others that were interested in doing that sort of thing and it was scarce at best. I don't know why this feeling manifests in some and not in others but it does seem like a critical attribute for a successful engineer. I know so many ppl that don't care what they are building at work and so many that do. The ones that do always put out better work. The ones that don't still seem to be fairly productive, but not disruptive or particularly innovative. This has drifted way off topic but I feel like the reason I am struggling with staying in engineering really is the $$ difference that a lawyer/mba makes. It seems like such boring work but it pays so much better. I don't want to give in but at the same time, its hard when at our engineering recruiting events there are law firms head hunting and offering 30-50% more money starting. Compounding this is watching some of the companies I have worked for (as an intern) add/subtract/replace engineers like a commodity. Personally, I have to think that the engineer that innovates, always has the next great idea for their work or the company and enjoys working to make good things will survive commoditization but the engineer that is on autopilot all day will not, or at least I hope. I dunno, I have been so enchanted with engineering since elementary school and lately it has been such a disappointment. Patent wars limit innovation, closed environments suck, companies that don't allow for innovation to move up the bureaucracy. Marketing that makes or breaks good ideas, CEOs (or co-CEOs - no that I am sore or anything...) that have no vision and don't listen to the engineers beneath them and a constant complaint of the imminent demise of the US as China and India take over. What makes me want to stay in engineering? All of my expensive tuition, hard classes and advanced course work just to have w/e stupid task I do on a daily basis outsourced? Engineering needs more quality and less quantity (or at least less dead weight and ppl unwilling/incapable/indifferent to innovation). Then we could pay the real innovators enough to want to stay in it. There should be some kind of rotation in terms of management or some change that would limit complacency. There should be more democracies within companies and more accountability to consumers/employees rather than share holders. There should be so much change - but there won't be. There is no one in a position of power that would want to see this change.
In the mean time, either I take an engineering job for less $$ and sit i
news editors - "omg the sun can be used to make electricity. omg phones need electricity. omg someone put them together. omg why didn't anyone else think of that. omg must be news worthy"
slashdot readers - "omg another stupid story that isn't news worthy. omg this guy has political opinions. omg lets have a flameware"
At my parents house the garage door opener wasn't working. My dad took the cover off and there was a gear that was stripped. After that he called sears and asked what the cost to fix it would be. The response:
This will be $100+ for the part and $140 for the service fee, after which the sears employee recommended just getting a new one instead.
We have had OK service from this unit but in my mind this was total failure by design (10 years). The gear that failed was a soft plastic gear that could have easily been made of something more durable for a few cents more per unit.
Anyhow, I consulted Google and the instant feature really gave it away. Tons of suggestions related to replacement gears for this unit. I then went to ebay and bought the OEM part from someone for $8 (including the recommended lubricant and instructions). After that came it took less than 15 minutes for my father and I to replace it.
The gear is clearly too soft for the kind of loads it has to handle. The pricing for a replacement + service is way higher than a new unit and replacement part and labor were very minimal.
While I don't want to say that MBAs are at fault for every poor piece of tech or bad direction that a company goes in, I do feel that MBAs are at fault for a highly disposable and irresponsible consumerism. The economics of it (both short and long term) make it easy to understand how this situation arises. Rather than sell a product that will last for 20 or 30 years for 1$ dollar more (or one dollar less in profit), it makes a lot more sense to sell two or three units in that same time.
If consumers were savvy to this they might say "hey, I want to try a different product rather than throw money at the this company taking advantage of me" or they might even demand that statistics be available on these units. But ultimately, consumers don't care. Its unfortunately unrealistic to expect many to open up something to see what that problem is (and in many cases, you can't just open something and figure out what is wrong easily) and it is even more unrealistic to expect that consumers have the attention span and interest to buy from companies who try and build the most durable version of something (if there is an option).
That being said, I will not shop at sears anymore.
To me, this problem is systemic at least here in the US, so much so that it is destabilizing our economy and way of life (although our way of life could stand to loose some stability. This type of business strategy is bad for the consumer, bad for companies (long term) and bad for the environment. The consumer ends up paying more. The company sells a ton in the short term, hires more people and then when times are tough and people don't want to fork over money constantly for the latest and greatest after their product fails, the companies fall flat on their face. Environmentally, we have china build them using tons of energy and enjoying their economically advantageous lack of environmental regulation and then we buy them, use them, something small and easy to fix breaks and we put them in a landfill and start over.
What we should do is gradually shift back to an economy where we manufacture in the US with our environmental regulations and stop sending all of our money overseas. MBAs and consumers though need to be encouraged to adopt this kind of institutionalized change. I don't know how to get either party to change but somehow it has to. We need responsible MBAs and if we can't get that we need responsible consumers that hold MBAs and ultimately their corporations accountable. Maybe the governement should incentivize it somehow. If you agree or disagree or have ideas I would love to hear from you.
Same, every few months I would try it out and something was either incredibly slow, buggy, or it would just be a massive memory hog...not really a major loss.
Slashdot Mirror
If you have lots of time and virtually no capitol, maybe you could end up saving a few hundred bucks by hosting with a raspi, getting a static IP (and maybe even DNS entry if fancy), using atmegas (with requisite ancillary circuitry), relays from radio shack, custom dsp on sensors, your own home grown datastructures (and database), etc ad nausuem. And dont forget it will probably be dangerous and ugly. I wrote a little program that can do a handful of your requirements and be hosted on a raspi. I used x10 for lights because 'socket rockets' can be obtained for under 10 a piece, and infrared+arduino for tvs, window shakers etc. https://github.com/dandroid88/.... It has the scheduling requirements and is pretty easy to write an extension for if you are looking for something fun. Alternatively, you could drop $400 bucks or less and get everything set up in a couple days at most without paying for a monthly subscription with Wink/Smartthings/etc. Its simply time/money
Echonest (startup in boston) has some libs on github for audio fingerprinting and retrievel. That solves part of it, but the labeling seems like it might be the tricky part. As far as how to quickly search, yeah maybe elasticsearch, but it might not really be needed as the number of songs is pretty finite.
A project of mine (https://github.com/dandroid88/webmote) attempts to serve as a bridge for some less connected, older technologies to be controlled by newer things like my smartphone. For instance, my home entertainment system, a hodge podge of new and old responds to IR (each with their own remote). My project allows one to control any of these devices from any device with internet connectivity and a browser so that I can turn off Glee (my fiance's fav) from the bathroom, lol. Its a plugin architecture that also supports some X10 so that I can turn lights on and off etc. On the newer end, it supports newer things like XBMC control and a few other soon to be uploaded additions. If you are looking to bridge the new and the old and have a rasbpi or server you can run it on I welcome you to try it out. It requires some simple arduino construction but that shouldn't be too difficult.
Interesting
I don't think King Snakes have rattlers....They are known for imitation but I think instead it is visual. http://www.petmd.com/sites/default/files/coral_snake_0.gif
In high school (public) and college (private) we used metric. Sure if I go to the hardware store its not metric but who cares, its not a huge deal. Schools already focus on metric in the US, despite what you Canadians think.
Totally agree
Spinners?
Modern medicine?
In the world series...
When I have been to the bar area it sure does seem nice compared the midwest. mountains, ocean... If you are at all into the outdoors the midwest pretty much sucks between november and april. Then when it warms up a bit there is well - lots of corn? Yes the cost of living is lower, but I might argue so is the quality.
*Also, the WSJ report was based on glass door right (too lazy to go look)? I find glassdoor doesn't do a good job of ensuring that people report their salary and title combination accurately. For a lot of companies there are generic software developers that could have been listed as software dev1, software dev2 and vice versa. Not saying the number is wrong, i don't know, I am just hesitant to take it them too seriously. Also, the bonuses that googlers get paid seem to be quite high (again according to glassdoor) - most places won't do anything similar even adjusted for regional COL variation.
I am in chicago and it is fun for the midwest but if my fiance would let me I would probably go running to either coast...
I am not sure how to feel about a few of these issues but at the same time clearly the school board has/will have money issues. Does anyone on slashdot know what kinds of computer systems they use? I went to school in a large school district in south Florida and everything was Windows, with as many expensive Microsoft productivity programs as possible, of which no one really used. It seems like an easy to use Linux distro and open/libre/google docs office program would be more than adequate for most schools needs and would seriously free up some money in the budget. Does anyone have any insight into Linux/open source software in public schools, particularly Chicago Public Schools?
I don't really understand who thought that hitting alt was a good idea? I have given up caring about my desktop environment out of frustration (just learned to love my terminal) but I really was pissed after trying gnome3 and not having panel applets, especially with how easy they were to add/remove. Having cpu/network monitor was nice, all the other goofy ones were kinda fun. It just seemed like such a winning feature and they canned it. I refused to google for advice on how to shutdown, so instead i installed a new interface...I would no longer even try a gnome OS.
RIAA dropped the SOPA?
I haven't read the article, only the /. summary, but I would venture to say that when they say 10 chords they are not talking about chords like A minor and B minor (really the same chord just transposed) but instead something like a first inversion minor chord or 2nd inversion neapolitan chord, etc. This would make more sense from a music theory perspective because regardless of the key (particular relevant for listeners without perfect pitch) the intervalic relationship defines what a chord sounds like. Whether it is an A minor or B minor chord is hard to tell for people with extensive training but in 1 minute most people could be trained to differentiate between major and minor. As far as the guitar concept you might be right, however I thought you could use some kind of clamp to change keys easily?
NU is on quarters rather than eternal semesters...
actually, its a university. and there are more women than men.
Right, but doesn't the average still need to be the same (again neglecting evaporation)? otherwise the lake would eventually be growing or shrinking...
"It would be even worse if we weren't also locking up lots of water from rivers behind dams like the Hoover Dam." - Isn't the rate at which it leaves the lake the same as if the dam hadn't been there (with maybe the exception of evaporation...), just with a delay? My understanding was that dams affect latency but not throughput...
Looking at getting a job right out of engineering school. Coming from a good school (top 15) with a high GPA (> 3.5). Looks to be easy. I don't really feel like my search is representative of what an average engineering grad deals with but it doesn't really seem that atypical. From what I know from friends back at the state school I almost went to they are getting good paying jobs, no prob. So is there a shortage of jobs? - I dunno, but all these ppl on slashdot are saying yes and all these ppl are saying no... I will say though after a few internships that there is extremely high variability in the capabilities of my fellow engineers. Some are good at hacking - really fast learners, can make anything work and understand anything and everything with ease but their work still ends up a little sloppy. There are some who are slower but put out solid work. Some that can do produce quantity and quality. Some that don't seem to do/know/understand anything and I can't figure out how they got hired.
With respect to the lawyer > MBA > engineer comments - that unfortunately is the feeling I get inside even though deep down somewhere inside I know that I like building useful and cool things. Something that always disappointed me growing up was that no one else built things. Growing up I built countless things, some stupid some awesome - but I did it because I got some internal satisfaction. I could train myself with books, the internet and ppl. I looked in middle school and high school for others that were interested in doing that sort of thing and it was scarce at best. I don't know why this feeling manifests in some and not in others but it does seem like a critical attribute for a successful engineer. I know so many ppl that don't care what they are building at work and so many that do. The ones that do always put out better work. The ones that don't still seem to be fairly productive, but not disruptive or particularly innovative. This has drifted way off topic but I feel like the reason I am struggling with staying in engineering really is the $$ difference that a lawyer/mba makes. It seems like such boring work but it pays so much better. I don't want to give in but at the same time, its hard when at our engineering recruiting events there are law firms head hunting and offering 30-50% more money starting. Compounding this is watching some of the companies I have worked for (as an intern) add/subtract/replace engineers like a commodity. Personally, I have to think that the engineer that innovates, always has the next great idea for their work or the company and enjoys working to make good things will survive commoditization but the engineer that is on autopilot all day will not, or at least I hope. I dunno, I have been so enchanted with engineering since elementary school and lately it has been such a disappointment. Patent wars limit innovation, closed environments suck, companies that don't allow for innovation to move up the bureaucracy. Marketing that makes or breaks good ideas, CEOs (or co-CEOs - no that I am sore or anything...) that have no vision and don't listen to the engineers beneath them and a constant complaint of the imminent demise of the US as China and India take over. What makes me want to stay in engineering? All of my expensive tuition, hard classes and advanced course work just to have w/e stupid task I do on a daily basis outsourced? Engineering needs more quality and less quantity (or at least less dead weight and ppl unwilling/incapable/indifferent to innovation). Then we could pay the real innovators enough to want to stay in it. There should be some kind of rotation in terms of management or some change that would limit complacency. There should be more democracies within companies and more accountability to consumers/employees rather than share holders. There should be so much change - but there won't be. There is no one in a position of power that would want to see this change.
In the mean time, either I take an engineering job for less $$ and sit i
news editors - "omg the sun can be used to make electricity. omg phones need electricity. omg someone put them together. omg why didn't anyone else think of that. omg must be news worthy"
slashdot readers - "omg another stupid story that isn't news worthy. omg this guy has political opinions. omg lets have a flameware"
At my parents house the garage door opener wasn't working. My dad took the cover off and there was a gear that was stripped. After that he called sears and asked what the cost to fix it would be. The response:
This will be $100+ for the part and $140 for the service fee, after which the sears employee recommended just getting a new one instead.
We have had OK service from this unit but in my mind this was total failure by design (10 years). The gear that failed was a soft plastic gear that could have easily been made of something more durable for a few cents more per unit.
Anyhow, I consulted Google and the instant feature really gave it away. Tons of suggestions related to replacement gears for this unit. I then went to ebay and bought the OEM part from someone for $8 (including the recommended lubricant and instructions). After that came it took less than 15 minutes for my father and I to replace it.
The gear is clearly too soft for the kind of loads it has to handle. The pricing for a replacement + service is way higher than a new unit and replacement part and labor were very minimal.
While I don't want to say that MBAs are at fault for every poor piece of tech or bad direction that a company goes in, I do feel that MBAs are at fault for a highly disposable and irresponsible consumerism. The economics of it (both short and long term) make it easy to understand how this situation arises. Rather than sell a product that will last for 20 or 30 years for 1$ dollar more (or one dollar less in profit), it makes a lot more sense to sell two or three units in that same time.
If consumers were savvy to this they might say "hey, I want to try a different product rather than throw money at the this company taking advantage of me" or they might even demand that statistics be available on these units. But ultimately, consumers don't care. Its unfortunately unrealistic to expect many to open up something to see what that problem is (and in many cases, you can't just open something and figure out what is wrong easily) and it is even more unrealistic to expect that consumers have the attention span and interest to buy from companies who try and build the most durable version of something (if there is an option). That being said, I will not shop at sears anymore.
To me, this problem is systemic at least here in the US, so much so that it is destabilizing our economy and way of life (although our way of life could stand to loose some stability. This type of business strategy is bad for the consumer, bad for companies (long term) and bad for the environment. The consumer ends up paying more. The company sells a ton in the short term, hires more people and then when times are tough and people don't want to fork over money constantly for the latest and greatest after their product fails, the companies fall flat on their face. Environmentally, we have china build them using tons of energy and enjoying their economically advantageous lack of environmental regulation and then we buy them, use them, something small and easy to fix breaks and we put them in a landfill and start over.
What we should do is gradually shift back to an economy where we manufacture in the US with our environmental regulations and stop sending all of our money overseas. MBAs and consumers though need to be encouraged to adopt this kind of institutionalized change. I don't know how to get either party to change but somehow it has to. We need responsible MBAs and if we can't get that we need responsible consumers that hold MBAs and ultimately their corporations accountable. Maybe the governement should incentivize it somehow. If you agree or disagree or have ideas I would love to hear from you.
Dan
It's about time.
buy an abacus
Same, every few months I would try it out and something was either incredibly slow, buggy, or it would just be a massive memory hog...not really a major loss.