A mill is sort of like a drill-press that can go sideways. In reality it's much more complicated than this, but you get the idea. The bits are not pointed, they have flat ended cutting flutes. There are exceptions, of course, like ball-end-mills (but that's just adding to the confusion).
A mill in a machine shop can be used to make quite complex parts out of a billet (big chunk) of metal. It's table can move in X and Y axis, and the mill-bit moves in the Z axis. They can get much more complicated than this, but you get the idea. A PCB mill typically operates more like a flatbed pen-plotter with a dremel attached... as it doesn't have to have much Z axis travel.
Unlike a drill-press, a mill will have micrometer controls, which means if you want to make a cut that's accurate within.001", you can quite easily.
Here's a quick search that should help: http://www.google.com/search?q=bridgeport+mill
It seems dabbling in electronics is a dying hobby for the younger crowds... I hope projects like this spawn new curiosity and interest.
For those new to this hobby... here are some publications that could be of great value to you: http://www.nutsvolts.com/ http://www.circui tcellar.com/ http://www.poptronics.com/
I used to work for a very large corporation who's policy towards Linux was "don't even bring it up"... they were quite hostile against using it for servers or desktops. This same company, during the same timeframe (and still, now) USED Linux in some of their cell-phone products! Just because a company develops for Linux, does not mean they actually use it on their desktops or servers.
Another company I've worked for is mostly Unix admins, and they are also completely against using Linux on company hardware, and _require_ that you use MS-Windows to support Unix systems! Anyone even vaguely familiar with Unix knows that supporting Unix systems via an MS-Windows desktop is quite a hobbling and inefficient experience.
In both cases, it was management/politics that dictated the use of MS-Windows. No valid reasons were _ever_ given for these decisions, even though very strong arguements for using Linux was provided and presented.
Don't assume just because a company develops for, or supports Unix/Linux that they allow it's use on servers or desktops.
Why not use an inflatable ball? I've seen clear/white/translucent ones... it should keep a spherical shape if nothing presses on it once you punch a hole through it for the LEDs. If not, just use a glue-gun to seal it up. It'd look cool hanging in the window or over your computer.;)
Others have suggested parallel ports, and I agree completely.... all you have to do is toggle a bit to turn on an LED.
1 wire each to 3 LEDs gives you 3 bits or 8 colors (if you count "off" as a color). Instead, use resistors to your advantage and use 2 bits per LED and end up with (6 bits) 64 colors!:)
Don't bother with relays... they draw too much current that you'll need for the LEDs. Instead, use transistors (if you find that the parallel port cannot provide enough current on each line). Go to Radio Shack and pick up one of their Engineer's Notebooks... there's about 8-10 different ones, you'll have to leaf through them to find the appropriate ones. Look for Ohm's law, you'll need this to calculate the values of the resistors you'll need (based on the voltage and current required by the LEDs). Also look for one with info on transistors and LEDs (obviously).
SlashDot becomming Chicken Soup for Geeks?
on
Family Tech Support
·
· Score: 1
Jeez... I've seen a lot of wierd stuff on slashdot that people complained about, but I found perfectly acceptible due to the geek factor, but this is just silly. Looks like something my aunt would forward to me!
Like many, my first thought was stone, fitted together tightly without mortar ala Egyptian pyramids.
Then I started to think about other houses that I've been in that were over a century old. These houses were built much more solidly than modern houses... which is really wierd when you consider all of the new "codes" and laws as to how a house should be built. These houses were built when people took pride in what they were building, not just trying to build the cheapest house they could for the sake of saving a buck.
1. Overengineer everything. Make the rooms too big, the supports too sturdy, the walls too heavy, etc.
2. Use solid, treated wood (if you use wood at all), no press-board, particle-board, or plywood.
3. Make the exterior walls out of something weatherproof, like bricks or fieldstones. I'm not even sure I'd recommend concrete blocks on this one, as it weathers much more quickly than fired bricks.
4. If you decide to use plastics, like the recycled 2x4s, make sure they're not exposed to the sun, as nearly all plastics deteriorate with prolonged exposure.
5. Don't rely on steel at all (like the new steel struts), as it will rust. Even galvanized steel will rust anywhere it has been scratched, drilled, or cut. This rust will, over time, propogate horribly, just as it does in car bodies. Cast iron is safer, as it does not rust as deeply as quickly as processed steel, although I would definately coat it with something heavy and permanent (powder-coat comes to mind).
The hardest part would be to find a suitable location for this house... something built like this couldn't be in an earthquake zone.
Another hard part would be to come up with a "timeless" design. You could alway shoot for the classic castle design.;)
The roof will be the soft spot with any house except a geodesic or monolithic dome structure, so pay special attention to it... use GLAZED concrete tiles. Speaking from experience here, after 35-40 years, non-glazed concrete roof tiles will wear through in non-obvious ways and leak. The damage will not be apparent until it is catastrophic.
If you want the Radeon 9000, you have to settle for only 32MB, if you want 64MB you have to switch to the nVidia chip.
With the 8200, you can get the Radeon 9000 with 64MB, so why not this machine? Wierd.
While this may not bother MS-Windows fans, this sucks for Linux users, as the nVidia drivers are still buggy (yes, I've made bug reports... yes, they've been ignored).
With regard to the resolution... I've seen the 1600x1200 Dell screen side by side with a 21" Sun monitor with the same image (connected to the notebook) and the 15" LCD was FAR more easy to read, even though it was smaller. The reason why is obvious if you think about it... the basic design of a CRT versus an LCD means the LCD will always be sharper. People think 600dpi is horribly grainy on a printer, but 100dpi is way too high a resolution to read with a display - that just doesn't make sense when you think about it. The obvious answer is to use a bigger font.
The ethernet card, when you're "configuring" your model, is listed as a 10/100/1000! This is the first gigahertz ethernet notebook implementation I've heard of!
Once inconsistancy is the front page lists the WiFi as 802.11a/b, but the configuration page lists it as 802.11g/b - big difference, but the latter makes more sense.
As far as looks go, I like the 8200 better. I wonder if this one cooks your hands like most Dell notebooks... (my Vaio cooks my lap instead, much preferred, I don't like typing with sweaty fingers - not that I'd ever recommend a Vaio to anyone).
And as others have noted, you have a choice of O/S - MS-Windows XP personal or professional editions... no option for ordering it without MS products. (this will probably get moderated as a troll for this comment by a MS zealot)
This is a totally different form of "VM"... the VM I referred to is a piece of software that runs on the IBM S/390 under the O/S, not a virtual _mode_ of it's CPU like the one you refer to that Intel uses. Intel's implementation that you're talking about is strictly tied to the CPU... IBM's implementation is tied throughout the system. It uses the same POWER architecture CPUs as the RS/6000 machines, but they do not have this capability due to the lack of hardware support of the rest of the machine. I don't know how else to put it, but the PC architecture is infantile compared to the S/390 mainframe. (and I'm a strong supporter of Linux)
. Others have already mentioned mtx, which works great on my DLT4700 stacker btw.
To tell the kernel to probe a device, just "echo scsi add-single-device 0 1 2 3 >/proc/scsi/scsi", where "0" is the host adaptor, "1" is the bus, "2" is the SCSI target, and "3" is the LUN. This works for anything SCSI, and works very well. To remove a device, do the same thing except change "add" to "remove".
This is very easy to do in a script. I know because I've done it to probe the virtual scsi host adaptor created by the usb-storage and sbp2(firewire) drivers.
. That was a demo "file manager" like app that SGI had included with the original Indigo Elan 4000 machines. I'm not sure what crap they ran it on for the movie though (must've been an Indigo 3000 without the Elan card), as the movie made it look really slow and choppy.
There are similar projects out there for Linux/Unix/X, do a freshmeat search for 3d file manager and you'll probably find several.
Dunno about #1, as all of my SMP linux boxes are only duals...
As far as #2 goes, that requires hardware support... that's not possible on an x86 or other primitive hardware. That, and the VM you refer to is not really considered an O/S.
User-mode-linux is *great*, and *somewhat* similar, but not the same thing at all.
"Windows" is a generic term given to any windowing environment, of which at least THREE predate Microsoft's product! I even remember a windowing system I hand-keyed into my Apple//c out of Nybble Magazine back in the mid-'80s.
Same thing with "DOS"... how the hell did they get a trademark on that acronym?!? Apple's DOS 3.3 and 3.2 predate any such product from Microsoft! Microsoft BOUGHT QDOS (and renamed it) to licence it to IBM _AFTER_ IBM saw Apple making money in the personal computer market.
There are many more examples of big companies with big dollars trademarking generic terms that are already in common use... people above use "Kleenex" as an example, but that's a bad example, as it became a generic term BECAUSE the company existed, not the other way around.
I use them on my GF2/GTS, and they've got some SERIOUS bugs! X frequently locks eating 100% of the cpu until I kill it... I ran strace and it's just looping. I have to remotely log in to do so, as even if I could get to a console, they're scrambled after killing X, requiring a reboot to "fix". The newer the driver, the worse the problem, to the point that I can lock it seconds after logging in in a predictable way. I posted info on the nvidia forum, no replies of any use. I am using one of the older drivers (2 or 3 releases old) and I can actually have X going for a few days now, instead of minutes or hours. This is not acceptable... if I was willing to put up with this level of instability I never would have switched to linux 11+ years ago.
I'm not sure what circles you travel in, but not everyone is a pirate.
As far as your comments about Linux users go, that's rediculous. We use Linux because it's more stable, versatile, customizable, etc. Not "just" because it's open-source. Every time I'm forced to use an MS-Windows machine, I'm disgusted and infuriated by how limiting it is... you're only allowed to do what MS says you should want to do.
If you've never used Unix (enough to understand the concepts beneath it), you shouldn't criticize it or it's users.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by moving the speaker to a different room... did you reconnect it? (unplugging it is sufficient, moving it is pointless).
I have heard monitors before... old Hitachi made Suns (as used on IPCs and SPARCstation 1s) with bad flybacks (painful if you have a high range of hearing). The tone changed slightly with the brightness of the screen, but was always there.
I am typing this on a computer that makes noise whenever I move the mouse or type, or during screen drawing functions. These sounds are definately coming from the speakers. If this is what you are experiencing, then your friend was exactly right. You will be more likely to hear it with cheaper sound cards/chips... and different video chips. The one I have is a horrible on-board sound-chip as used on a Tyan Thunder 2 (dual P-II board w/on-board sound & SCSI), the OPL3-SAX. It may also be the design of the board rather than the chip. Part of the problem is the video card, I'm using a Banshee in this box. When I toss in a sound card (instead of using the onboard chip), the annoying noise is greatly deminished, but still there (if you listen closely).
What about the bacteria found frozen in the polar ice caps that "revived" when thawed? It was hundreds of thousands (millions?) of years old, and still viable! I don't remember the specifics... just turn on Discovery, TLC, or The Science Channel once in a while, you'll stumble over it.
The popular beliefs of the limits of life are being challenged all the time. Just look at the life in/near the thermal vents in the deap ocean for a comparison in the opposite direction.
It's also obvious that you've never seen the video of the exploding whale. Here's a hint... if you start off with an 8 ton whale, and you blow it up, you end up with 8 tons of whale parts! Asteroids also follow this simple rule.
These politicians trying to push this through are just playing on the fears of the people who really have no idea what happened on 9/11!
They KNEW exactly who was getting on these planes! Not one of the terrorists used a fake identity or alias! All of them were suspected terrorists, and they all used their own identity.
The government is just trying to shift the blame away from themselves for failure to actually block these terrorists from boarding the planes ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
Same goes for the cameras with the face-recognition software... they're POINTLESS, except they allow the US government to track it's own citizens!
I always thought the NotePad was a great machine... almost as usable as a notebook, and almost as portable as a PDA. I can finally upgrade from a 386SL/16!
It's amazing these things aren't more popular... even IBM had a nice notebook a few years back, with a display that would spin around so you could fold it flat and use it as a pen-machine. That one didn't take off either.
I think the biggest problem with both machines was the lack of marketing. They didn't market them heavily because there wasn't a demand for pad based machines, but there wasn't a market for pad based machines because the vast majority of the public didn't know they existed... perfect example of management/marketing-catch-22. Now that everyone knows what a PDA is, and that they want a bigger display and more power, maybe this company will actually aggressively market the new toy.
Well, I cut a hole in (the back of) my case and mounted a fan (with a guard) to draw air across my extra hard drives... I mounted them by attaching four sheetmetal strips to tabs at the top of the case above the power supply (it's a full tower).
These two mods allow me to add 5 more drives to the case, and keeps them (and the rest of the case) cool. Barracudas run too darned hot without a serious airflow over them.
I also clipped apart a pile of "Y" power connectors and soldered them together (with heat-shrink) to make a power-bus. This eliminates the considerable instability caused by daisy-chaining "Y" connectors. My system had 11 drives, but the power supply only had 4 power connectors... each "Y" only adds one extra connector, so it was a huge array of them before I did this. It makes the wiring much neater too, at least the power wiring (I still have 2 SCSI busses throughout the case).
Slashdot Mirror
A mill is sort of like a drill-press that can go sideways.
.001", you can quite easily.
In reality it's much more complicated than this, but you get the idea.
The bits are not pointed, they have flat ended cutting flutes. There are exceptions, of course, like ball-end-mills (but that's just adding to the confusion).
A mill in a machine shop can be used to make quite complex parts out of a billet (big chunk) of metal. It's table can move in X and Y axis, and the mill-bit moves in the Z axis. They can get much more complicated than this, but you get the idea.
A PCB mill typically operates more like a flatbed pen-plotter with a dremel attached... as it doesn't have to have much Z axis travel.
Unlike a drill-press, a mill will have micrometer controls, which means if you want to make a cut that's accurate within
Here's a quick search that should help: http://www.google.com/search?q=bridgeport+mill
Hope this helps.
It seems dabbling in electronics is a dying hobby for the younger crowds... I hope projects like this spawn new curiosity and interest.
i tcellar.com/
For those new to this hobby... here are some publications that could be of great value to you:
http://www.nutsvolts.com/
http://www.circu
http://www.poptronics.com/
Anyone know of any others?
I used to work for a very large corporation who's policy towards Linux was "don't even bring it up"... they were quite hostile against using it for servers or desktops.
This same company, during the same timeframe (and still, now) USED Linux in some of their cell-phone products!
Just because a company develops for Linux, does not mean they actually use it on their desktops or servers.
Another company I've worked for is mostly Unix admins, and they are also completely against using Linux on company hardware, and _require_ that you use MS-Windows to support Unix systems!
Anyone even vaguely familiar with Unix knows that supporting Unix systems via an MS-Windows desktop is quite a hobbling and inefficient experience.
In both cases, it was management/politics that dictated the use of MS-Windows.
No valid reasons were _ever_ given for these decisions, even though very strong arguements for using Linux was provided and presented.
Don't assume just because a company develops for, or supports Unix/Linux that they allow it's use on servers or desktops.
Why not use an inflatable ball? ;)
:)
I've seen clear/white/translucent ones... it should keep a spherical shape if nothing presses on it once you punch a hole through it for the LEDs. If not, just use a glue-gun to seal it up.
It'd look cool hanging in the window or over your computer.
Others have suggested parallel ports, and I agree completely.... all you have to do is toggle a bit to turn on an LED.
1 wire each to 3 LEDs gives you 3 bits or 8 colors (if you count "off" as a color).
Instead, use resistors to your advantage and use 2 bits per LED and end up with (6 bits) 64 colors!
Don't bother with relays... they draw too much current that you'll need for the LEDs.
Instead, use transistors (if you find that the parallel port cannot provide enough current on each line).
Go to Radio Shack and pick up one of their Engineer's Notebooks... there's about 8-10 different ones, you'll have to leaf through them to find the appropriate ones.
Look for Ohm's law, you'll need this to calculate the values of the resistors you'll need (based on the voltage and current required by the LEDs).
Also look for one with info on transistors and LEDs (obviously).
Jeez... I've seen a lot of wierd stuff on slashdot that people complained about, but I found perfectly acceptible due to the geek factor, but this is just silly.
Looks like something my aunt would forward to me!
Like many, my first thought was stone, fitted together tightly without mortar ala Egyptian pyramids.
;)
;)
Then I started to think about other houses that I've been in that were over a century old. These houses were built much more solidly than modern houses... which is really wierd when you consider all of the new "codes" and laws as to how a house should be built. These houses were built when people took pride in what they were building, not just trying to build the cheapest house they could for the sake of saving a buck.
1. Overengineer everything. Make the rooms too big, the supports too sturdy, the walls too heavy, etc.
2. Use solid, treated wood (if you use wood at all), no press-board, particle-board, or plywood.
3. Make the exterior walls out of something weatherproof, like bricks or fieldstones. I'm not even sure I'd recommend concrete blocks on this one, as it weathers much more quickly than fired bricks.
4. If you decide to use plastics, like the recycled 2x4s, make sure they're not exposed to the sun, as nearly all plastics deteriorate with prolonged exposure.
5. Don't rely on steel at all (like the new steel struts), as it will rust. Even galvanized steel will rust anywhere it has been scratched, drilled, or cut. This rust will, over time, propogate horribly, just as it does in car bodies. Cast iron is safer, as it does not rust as deeply as quickly as processed steel, although I would definately coat it with something heavy and permanent (powder-coat comes to mind).
The hardest part would be to find a suitable location for this house... something built like this couldn't be in an earthquake zone.
Another hard part would be to come up with a "timeless" design. You could alway shoot for the classic castle design.
The roof will be the soft spot with any house except a geodesic or monolithic dome structure, so pay special attention to it... use GLAZED concrete tiles. Speaking from experience here, after 35-40 years, non-glazed concrete roof tiles will wear through in non-obvious ways and leak. The damage will not be apparent until it is catastrophic.
Just curious, did you win lotto?
If you want the Radeon 9000, you have to settle for only 32MB, if you want 64MB you have to switch to the nVidia chip.
With the 8200, you can get the Radeon 9000 with 64MB, so why not this machine? Wierd.
While this may not bother MS-Windows fans, this sucks for Linux users, as the nVidia drivers are still buggy (yes, I've made bug reports... yes, they've been ignored).
With regard to the resolution... I've seen the 1600x1200 Dell screen side by side with a 21" Sun monitor with the same image (connected to the notebook) and the 15" LCD was FAR more easy to read, even though it was smaller. The reason why is obvious if you think about it... the basic design of a CRT versus an LCD means the LCD will always be sharper. People think 600dpi is horribly grainy on a printer, but 100dpi is way too high a resolution to read with a display - that just doesn't make sense when you think about it. The obvious answer is to use a bigger font.
The ethernet card, when you're "configuring" your model, is listed as a 10/100/1000! This is the first gigahertz ethernet notebook implementation I've heard of!
Once inconsistancy is the front page lists the WiFi as 802.11a/b, but the configuration page lists it as 802.11g/b - big difference, but the latter makes more sense.
As far as looks go, I like the 8200 better. I wonder if this one cooks your hands like most Dell notebooks... (my Vaio cooks my lap instead, much preferred, I don't like typing with sweaty fingers - not that I'd ever recommend a Vaio to anyone).
And as others have noted, you have a choice of O/S - MS-Windows XP personal or professional editions... no option for ordering it without MS products. (this will probably get moderated as a troll for this comment by a MS zealot)
This is a totally different form of "VM"... the VM I referred to is a piece of software that runs on the IBM S/390 under the O/S, not a virtual _mode_ of it's CPU like the one you refer to that Intel uses.
Intel's implementation that you're talking about is strictly tied to the CPU... IBM's implementation is tied throughout the system. It uses the same POWER architecture CPUs as the RS/6000 machines, but they do not have this capability due to the lack of hardware support of the rest of the machine.
I don't know how else to put it, but the PC architecture is infantile compared to the S/390 mainframe. (and I'm a strong supporter of Linux)
.
/proc/scsi/scsi",
Others have already mentioned mtx, which works great on my DLT4700 stacker btw.
To tell the kernel to probe a device, just
"echo scsi add-single-device 0 1 2 3 >
where "0" is the host adaptor, "1" is the bus, "2" is the SCSI target, and "3" is the LUN. This works for anything SCSI, and works very well.
To remove a device, do the same thing except change "add" to "remove".
This is very easy to do in a script. I know because I've done it to probe the virtual scsi host adaptor created by the usb-storage and sbp2(firewire) drivers.
.
That was a demo "file manager" like app that SGI had included with the original Indigo Elan 4000 machines. I'm not sure what crap they ran it on for the movie though (must've been an Indigo 3000 without the Elan card), as the movie made it look really slow and choppy.
There are similar projects out there for Linux/Unix/X, do a freshmeat search for 3d file manager and you'll probably find several.
Dunno about #1, as all of my SMP linux boxes are only duals...
As far as #2 goes, that requires hardware support... that's not possible on an x86 or other primitive hardware. That, and the VM you refer to is not really considered an O/S.
User-mode-linux is *great*, and *somewhat* similar, but not the same thing at all.
...
Your link is broken.
"DOS" may not be a trademark, but I've read many articles that referenced it as such at the bottom, so apparently the media thinks it is.
"Windows" is a generic term given to any windowing environment, of which at least THREE predate Microsoft's product! I even remember a windowing system I hand-keyed into my Apple //c out of Nybble Magazine back in the mid-'80s.
Same thing with "DOS"... how the hell did they get a trademark on that acronym?!? Apple's DOS 3.3 and 3.2 predate any such product from Microsoft! Microsoft BOUGHT QDOS (and renamed it) to licence it to IBM _AFTER_ IBM saw Apple making money in the personal computer market.
There are many more examples of big companies with big dollars trademarking generic terms that are already in common use... people above use "Kleenex" as an example, but that's a bad example, as it became a generic term BECAUSE the company existed, not the other way around.
I use them on my GF2/GTS, and they've got some SERIOUS bugs! X frequently locks eating 100% of the cpu until I kill it... I ran strace and it's just looping. I have to remotely log in to do so, as even if I could get to a console, they're scrambled after killing X, requiring a reboot to "fix".
The newer the driver, the worse the problem, to the point that I can lock it seconds after logging in in a predictable way. I posted info on the nvidia forum, no replies of any use.
I am using one of the older drivers (2 or 3 releases old) and I can actually have X going for a few days now, instead of minutes or hours.
This is not acceptable... if I was willing to put up with this level of instability I never would have switched to linux 11+ years ago.
My next card will be an ATI, you can bet on it!
I'm not sure what circles you travel in, but not everyone is a pirate.
As far as your comments about Linux users go, that's rediculous. We use Linux because it's more stable, versatile, customizable, etc. Not "just" because it's open-source. Every time I'm forced to use an MS-Windows machine, I'm disgusted and infuriated by how limiting it is... you're only allowed to do what MS says you should want to do.
If you've never used Unix (enough to understand the concepts beneath it), you shouldn't criticize it or it's users.
This is the perfect opportunity to demand that the US Gov't remove all MS products from their systems and switch over to open-source equivalents!
Microsoft can no longer argue that it's safe and secure, or they'd be purguring themselves!
Oh what a tanlged web we weave... eh Microsoft?
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by moving the speaker to a different room... did you reconnect it? (unplugging it is sufficient, moving it is pointless).
I have heard monitors before... old Hitachi made Suns (as used on IPCs and SPARCstation 1s) with bad flybacks (painful if you have a high range of hearing). The tone changed slightly with the brightness of the screen, but was always there.
I am typing this on a computer that makes noise whenever I move the mouse or type, or during screen drawing functions. These sounds are definately coming from the speakers. If this is what you are experiencing, then your friend was exactly right. You will be more likely to hear it with cheaper sound cards/chips... and different video chips. The one I have is a horrible on-board sound-chip as used on a Tyan Thunder 2 (dual P-II board w/on-board sound & SCSI), the OPL3-SAX. It may also be the design of the board rather than the chip. Part of the problem is the video card, I'm using a Banshee in this box. When I toss in a sound card (instead of using the onboard chip), the annoying noise is greatly deminished, but still there (if you listen closely).
What about the bacteria found frozen in the polar
ice caps that "revived" when thawed?
It was hundreds of thousands (millions?) of years
old, and still viable!
I don't remember the specifics... just turn on
Discovery, TLC, or The Science Channel once in a
while, you'll stumble over it.
The popular beliefs of the limits of life are being
challenged all the time. Just look at the life
in/near the thermal vents in the deap ocean for
a comparison in the opposite direction.
The nuclear rocket the above poster is referring to is NOT A BOMB!
Look up NERVA, it's the most efficient (and to my knowledge, the most powerful) rocket engine ever developed.
It's obvious you don't know the law of conservation of mass.
It's also obvious that you've never seen the video of the exploding whale.
Here's a hint... if you start off with an 8 ton whale, and you blow it up, you end up with 8 tons of whale parts! Asteroids also follow this simple rule.
These politicians trying to push this through are
just playing on the fears of the people who really
have no idea what happened on 9/11!
They KNEW exactly who was getting on these planes!
Not one of the terrorists used a fake identity or alias!
All of them were suspected terrorists, and they all
used their own identity.
The government is just trying to shift the blame
away from themselves for failure to actually block
these terrorists from boarding the planes ALL AT
THE SAME TIME.
Same goes for the cameras with the face-recognition
software... they're POINTLESS, except they allow
the US government to track it's own citizens!
I wonder if they'll release the handwriting recognition
under the GPL. That would certainly be cool, though
I doubt it'd happen.
I'd still buy one even if that portion of it is
proprietary.
I always thought the NotePad was a great machine...
almost as usable as a notebook, and almost as
portable as a PDA.
I can finally upgrade from a 386SL/16!
It's amazing these things aren't more popular...
even IBM had a nice notebook a few years back, with
a display that would spin around so you could fold
it flat and use it as a pen-machine. That one didn't
take off either.
I think the biggest problem with both machines
was the lack of marketing. They didn't market them
heavily because there wasn't a demand for pad
based machines, but there wasn't a market for pad
based machines because the vast majority of the
public didn't know they existed...
perfect example of management/marketing-catch-22.
Now that everyone knows what a PDA is, and that
they want a bigger display and more power, maybe
this company will actually aggressively market
the new toy.
Well, I cut a hole in (the back of) my case and
mounted a fan (with a guard) to draw air across my
extra hard drives... I mounted them by attaching
four sheetmetal strips to tabs at the top of the
case above the power supply (it's a full tower).
These two mods allow me to add 5 more drives to the
case, and keeps them (and the rest of the case)
cool. Barracudas run too darned hot without a
serious airflow over them.
I also clipped apart a pile of "Y" power connectors
and soldered them together (with heat-shrink) to
make a power-bus. This eliminates the considerable
instability caused by daisy-chaining "Y" connectors.
My system had 11 drives, but the power supply only
had 4 power connectors... each "Y" only adds one
extra connector, so it was a huge array of them
before I did this. It makes the wiring much neater
too, at least the power wiring (I still have 2
SCSI busses throughout the case).
It's not glitzy, but it's functional.
.
I want to patent frivolous lawsuits!
Heh... I'd get as rich as BillyG in a year from
South Florida alone!