VERY interesting. Thank you for the correction - I could have SWORN I had read it was sterilized and I cannot believe they didn't do that!!!
We don't know enough about the constraints for life to make the assumption "it's too cold there." Life has been found to thrive here on Earth in all kinds of places that should not be able to sustain it (the black smokers in the ocean's depths, on the sides of radiation pools, etc) and has also been proven to be able to survive a trip through space (which is the whole reason for the concern about sterilization of these probes. If the trip through space would perform the sterilization for us, this would not be an issue!)
IMHO designing a problem to land on another body and not sterlizing it is a GROSS breach of ethics. I am very upset / disappointed by the ESA's decision. Yes, sterilization is very expensive. Yes, sterilization is potentially damaging to the probe itself. Yes, it's important!
it's because they sterilized the probe they are sending to Titan, but the spacecraft they sent into Jupiter was NOT fully sterilized -- they couldn't guarantee there would be no contamination, so they took the safe approach.
With Huygens, they can be much more confident they will not accidentally contaminate anything.
As a joke, I changed my wife's homepage to badgerbadgerbadger. SHE KEPT IT!!!!! It's been her homepage for a couple months now.
It turns out my year-old daughter LOVES the badger song. She giggles and laughs at "A SNAKE! A SNAKE!! oooh... it's a snake"
So now every time my wife surfs I gotta put up with the badger song. Worst backfire to a practical joke ever. I have nightmares about badgers & mushrooms now.
I guess I wasn't horribly clear either. I am agreeing with you. The Xprize is a great first step, but it's JUST the first step. I was just differentiating between altitude and LEO and specifically stating that once we hit 100KM, altitude doesn't matter anymore - the next step has to be LEO (and I was going into greater detail for the readers who get "going into space" confused with "orbiting" -- that seems to be a common occurrance)
The BIGGEST obstacle the X-prize is useful for overcoming is the attitude that "space is so tough that it requires government involvement" -- that attitude has GOT to be overcome before we can ever make a stab at getting off this rock -- and we overcome the psychological aspect by taking baby steps like the X-prize.
Note: You're right --unless you're careful, high altitude will allow you to make planetfall as a small smoking cinder. Orbital velocity will allow you to make a big black smear across several states:(
Altitude really is relatively meaningless (after the 100KM limit is reached - that altitude is useful for proving commercial ability to work in an airless environment -- rocket technologies, stabilization of the craft, etc). After you get into space, Orbital ALTITUDE doesn't matter so much as Orbital VELOCITY.
you can get HIGH without having to go FAST. But you're still not in orbit. In order to orbit, you have to be going fast enough horizontally that you "miss" the Earth as you fall - you still fall, but you are falling in a circle... Orbital velicity for the shuttle (at a typical altitude 300 km) is approximately 8 km/s (18,000 mph).
In order to return to Earth from 300 km up, the straight falling velocity (discounting air resistance, which is quite substantial!) is 1.7KM/s (approx 3800mph).
As you can see, slowing down from orbit (18,000mph) is quite a bit more difficult than just slowing down from a great height (3800mph).
The X-prize demonstrates the usability and reusability of commercial rocket engines. This is a major step for for commercialization of space. The next step would be orbital velocity, which is quite a bit more difficult than just getting up into space...
Back in '95 or so, a friend of mine broke up with his girlfriend. He was afraid she'd sabotage his computer, so he asked me if I could store it for a few days.
At the time, he had a BRAND SPANKING NEW pentium 166, and I was stuck with a lowly 486. He was constantly making fun of my old, slow box. I told him "sure you can keep it here - but one of these days I may get ambitious and swap motherboards on ya..."
I then proceeded to write a program that EXACTLY imitated my 486 POST test - right down to the little clicking sound as it SLOWLY counted up to grand total of 8M RAM installed. I put my program at the top of his autoexec.bat
I went into his BIOS and disabled his POST display, and disabled his external cache. This effectively cut his speed to about 1/4 and showed my fake POST screen on bootup.
I gave it back to him and watched as he powered it on. I've NEVER seen someone turn so red in my life -- I could have sworn I saw smoke coming out his ears, and that little vein in his forehead was pulsing so hard I thought he was gonna have a stroke! He laughs about it now, but he didn't see the humor in it at all that day!
My grandmother used to get a persistant telemarketer who kept calling and asked for the man of the house. My grandfather was a rancher and was never in the house during the day, so my grandmother would always say he isn't in...
Finally one rainy day my grandpa WAS in the house and happened to answer the phone.
"Is the man of the house in?" "This is..." <telemarketer begins sales pitch> "I'm sorry, my wife makes all the financial decisions" <CLICK>
In typical Rutan style (and the Rutans DEFINATELY have a style all their own) this bird doesn't look like it should even EXIST outside an Anime cartoon, much less FLY -- and only Burt Rutan could come up with a working prototype powered by LAUGHING GAS AND OLD TIRES!
And in typical Rutan fashion, it'll probably work perfectly the first flight, and cost less than 1/10th what NASA could do it for:) By the way, Burt pronounces NASA as "Nay-Say". Kinda tells ya something...
Interesting story: I attended a lecture Burt gave last year (at Oshkosh Airventure 2002) and he was talking about the Proteus. They were involved in an air quality experiment. There were several layers of airplanes in a vertical stack -- the Proteus was assigned the 65,000ft layer, and a NASA U2 was given the 68,000ft assignment. The U2 (which was only flying 3000ft above the Proteus) had a full maintenance crew of 40. The Proteus came with a crew of 2! Rutan stated that they spent most of their day on the ground, playing cards and waiting for the U2 crew to finish maintenance....
You may be interested in the One For All remotes -- they actually DO all of that!:) (or nearly all that anyway)
Check out http://www.hifi-remote.com/ofa/
They fit in one hand, and most have real buttons.
They are filled with codes for lots of units, and have Advanced Codes as well. For example, the default codes for my DVD player did not include the Zoom function. I looked up the Advanced Code for Zoom, and programmed it in, and now Zoom works. They also have many Discrete Codes that are not available on the original remotes. My DVD player has an on/off button. Push it once to turn it on. Push it again to turn it off. I didn't want that. I JUST wanted ON. I set up a macro using the Discrete On function that switches my receiver to DVD, switches my TV to DVD mode, and turns ON the DVD player. I have another button that flips everything back to TV. When I hit the DVD button again, It switches back to DVD. I needed the discrete code because the original on/off code would have turned the DVD player OFF when I switched back...
Computer connection: They don't have USB capability, but they do have a serial cable that plugs into the JP1 port on the remote - you can have total program control from your computer. Note that the model I have has the firmware for the JP1 but doesn't have the actual connector - you would have to solder the connector into the holes provided. Not a big deal, but it does mean a little hardware hacking. The "nicer" OFA remotes have the actual connector already.
Learning: Most of them have learning capability. My current one does not, but I only spent $14 on the remote. I returned an $80 remote because my $14 OFA worked BETTER and was more hackable:) I also found I didn't need learning capabilities (at this time) because all the functions I was interested in have codes already.
TiVO/DVD jog. I mentioned my DVD flipping above. I don't have a TiVO so I can't comment. But I haven't heard any complaints.
Intuitive layout. The guide buttons are arranged in a circle (with Select in the center) and are located right under your thumb when you hold it. The channel up/down and volume up/down are also very well placed. I find it very intuitive.
Macros - every button except Setup and the Device Selection buttons can be reprogrammed as macros. And even the Device buttons can be reprogrammed via the JP1 connection. My only gripe is that there is a 1-second delay between each command in the macros (this is to allow a device to complete the previous command before continuing with the next command). My understanding is that the timedelay can be modified via JP1.
Multiple devices. My $14 remote is an 8-device remote.
Config files. the JP1 interface allows you to backup your setup to computer.
Reprogrammable buttons. See Macros, above.
Battery door. Seems sturdy to me. no problems so far:)
Multifunction buttons. Take a look at the OFA Kameleon (http://www.remotecentral.com/ureview/62.htm) -- not only does it have multifunction buttons, but only the buttons that are used with a particular device are illuminated.
FYI My remote is the One For All model 6012, purchased from Walmart for $14.
My daughter turned 2 weeks old yesterday
on
Advice for a Dad-To-Be?
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Congrats!! I know exactly how you're feeling right now - my daughter was born 2 weeks ago:):):)
Since I'm new at this "father thing" as well, I am only qualified to give advice on pregnancy and the 1st couple weeks of life...
PREGNANCY: 1) Backrubs are good. Backrubs are VERY good. For valentines day, I got my wife a one-hour "pregnancy massage" at a local spa (focusing on all the typical sore spots a pregnant woman has). Get her one of these. Cost is no object. Schedule it for approximately a month before the baby is due. She'll need it by then.
2) Understanding and patience is good. your wife's body will be undergoing massive changes - physical, chemical, and emotional. These changes will NOT be understood (by either of you) and can be frightening and even embarrassing. Go with the flow. Be there for her. She needs you more than ever before.
3) Get her things. "How about a glass of ice water, honey?" Be proactive - anticipate her needs. It will be appreciated.
4) Have everything ready in advance. Get the room painted. They have "starter kits" with all sorts of things in them that you wouldn't have thought of. Buy a couple packs of diapers. Make sure the room has a good nightlight - you'll be stumbling into there at 3am on a daily basis.
5) There is an online magazine (with accompanying deadtree mag) called ePregnancy. http://www.epregnancy.com/ -- Sign up for the weekly email. It's very good at explaining exactly what is happening week to week. The weekly emails are tailored to the correct week of pregnancy. My wife really looked forward to reading about what is happening to her each week.
6) Get the carseat a few weeks in advance. Take a carseat class BEFORE buying the seat. Once you buy it, PUT IT IN THE CAR and make sure you understand how it works. Do NOT wait until your child is born. oh, and SEND IN THE REGISTRATION CARD for the carseat. I cannot stress that enough. I know, it gets you put on another junkmail list. But it also gets you put on the carseat recall list. You do NOT want to be using an unsafe seat. TAKE THE CARSEAT CLASS. Over 80% of people using carseats are using them incorrectly.
DELIVERY 1) Take a prenatal class. Make sure they do a tour of the delivery unit. Make sure you know where to go IN ADVANCE - the Big Day arrives and you'll be too panicked to have to search for the right entrance to the hospital.
1) Be there for her. Be patient and understanding with her. She's SCARED AS HELL at this point. She's heard all sorts of horror stories about pain. Comfort her. Do what she asks:)
2) Epidurals are a godsend. We live in the 21st century. Modern medicine is a GOOD thing. Don't be afraid to take advantage of it.
3) Bring a sandwich. You'll be in the delivery room for a while. Your wife will need you there. Make sure it's not a stinky sandwich (I threatened to bring tunafish...)
4) Bring CDs of soft, soothing music (ie Enya). It helps during the contractions. We found a nice CD of Dolphin music at walmart for $4 or so - it's got ocean sounds, soft piano music, etc. Worked great.
5) If your wife is planning on natural delivery (ie no drugs), make sure to have a "focal point" she can concentrate on during the contractions. Also, take your wedding ring off -- she'll break your fingers squeezing your hand against your ring!
6) Help in the delivery. I held one of my wife's legs and counted while she pushed. Watch during the birth. IT'S AMAZING!! It WILL change your outlook on life.
7) Don't be surprised by anything that occurs. There is no modesty left during delivery. Just enjoy it. it's a TRUE miracle.
AFTER YOUR CHILD IS BORN 1) no visitors while you're in the hospital. Use the time to recover and enjoy your new child. Also use the time in the hospital for education. Those nurses know a LOT. Rely on them.
When I was in college, a friend related a story from when he was in high school. He thoroughly cleaned out his windshield washer system (pump, reservoir, tubing, etc) and ran the tubing to a nozzle under the dash. He then filled the reservoir with alcohol , and was able to make his own mixed drinks while road-tripping. He even hooked up a reversible pump so if he ever got pulled over, he could just suck the drink back into the reservoir!
(yeah I know, DISGUSTING. and STUPID too!! but he was in high school, so he was young & stupid by definition:) )
Anyway, his "system" worked great until one day when his dad used the car & the windshield was dirty.......
I had a similar situation -- I was laid off the 1st of the year. In the following months, my previous firm contacted me regularly, mostly asking how I was doing, letting me know they wanted me back & were looking for ways to accomplish that, etc.
Then one day I got a call from them. They had a customer who wanted some work done, but it was such a small job that just drafting the agreement would be more expensive than the job was worth. They contacted me and told me if I wanted to freelance the job, they'd put me in touch with the customer. I accepted it (of course). it turned out that it was too small for even a freelance charge, but I answered the guys question and it generated positive advertising for my previous firm.
A month later, I got another call from them -- another freelance job - this one was for the wife of the head of my old firm. I again accepted it and his wife was happy with my results.
Then my old manager called. He didn't have a freelance offer this time -- he wanted some advice on how to collect unemployment! (yeah, business got so bad the managers were being let go...) So I was very helpful & supportive of him too -- told him where to go to sign up, what the process was, etc.
Then I got one last call -- now I'm working full-time for my old firm again. They were so happy with my attitude and willingness to help them out even after letting me go that they found a spot for me & I'm gainfully employed again -- with my full benefits just like I never left (3 weeks vacation, I'm vested, etc). Admittedly, it WAS a paycut from my old salary, but in this market, I'm not complaining:)
Sorry about all the rambling. I guess what I'm trying to say in a nutshell is: Don't burn your bridges. Having a positive attitude and being willing to help them out can never hurt - it can only help. Even if they don't have any openings, they may hear of other firms that need people & could suggest you -- or give you a positive review when a future employer starts checking references. You never know when someone may be talking to them and your name may come up...
The other reason to use your own money is DRIVE. If you NEED a sucessful business in order to put beans&rice on the table, you have a MUCH stronger motivation for success. Problems arise? You roll up your sleeves, dig in, and FIX IT (or die trying) because you need to feed your family. If someone else is funding you, and you run into problems, "well, gee, oh well. That's too bad. Glad it wasn't my money."
My cable company (Charter) has implemented Tiered pricing -- however, they are NOT doing it by gigabytes per month. Instead they have implemented a speed tier:
256Kb/s down -- approx. $20/month 768Kb/s down -- approx. $30/month 1.5Mb/s down -- approx. $40/month the upload is capped at 128Kb/s for all tiers I believe.
This strategy allows the heavy bandwidth users to choose the fast connection (and pay for it) while the "check your email and look at tomorrows weather on the 'net" person can choose the cheaper options. It's a good comprimise, IMHO -- and you aren't penalized if a new version of redhat comes out:)
I have been using ClarkConnect for quite some time, and have been very impressed.
It is a full linux distribution, based on redhat 7.2, and is your typical linux firewall/router, but also comes with Snort, SSH, Junkbuster, Apache, proftpd, samba, cups, webmin, MRTG, etc.
The interface is web-based or commandline-based.
I am currently running it on a 486-66, 20M ram system, and the routing is very quick (I don't notice any slowdowns at all), but administration is a bit slow with this old box.
My compilations tend to be relatively quick (15 - 30 seconds or so) - I work on small sub-components, then once I've unit tested them, I submit them to the group for integration into the main engine. That compile tends to take a bit longer, but I don't have to do that:)
Also, a breakdown of my coding time is:
98% frustration (bang head against monitor)
1.5% inspiration ("OH MY GOD I was so STUPID! How could I have missed that?!?!?!)
0.5% waiting for compiles
I agree. Business-critical (or Anything-critical) machines should NEVER be overclocked.
I overclock my home machine (Thunderbird 800, OC'd to 935 (8.5 * 110mhz), with PC100 SDRAM OC'd to 147mhz (HCLK+PCICLK = 110+37)) but that's my HOME system, used for gaming, balancing the checkbook, hobbyist coding (currently I'm working on a team writing a WWI flightsim) etc. NOTHING business-critical.
I would NEVER overclock my work box. That's a good way to end up unemployed!
"How is that module coming? You have an 8:00 am Friday deadline you know"
"Uh boss... I won't be able to make that deadline because I am busy trying to put out the fire on my CPU."
My wife has her own computer, and I have everything important backed up (and copied onto her machine) so if mine dies, I just can't play any games for a while until I get it fixed:) Nothing important is lost.
Stability is FAR more important than speed in today's computing environment. Heck, the bottleneck really isn't processor speed anymore anyway - it's 'net connection speed, hard drive access speed, memory speed, etc. I've noticed my 135mhz overclock has resulted in about 10% improvement in benchmarks, just a couple FPS improvement in the games I play, and has a ZERO speed improvement in my coding speed:) No matter how fast my CPU is, I can't think or type any quicker...
What I do is take all the pamplets, letters, credit card apps, etc. and shred it. I then stuff the shredded junkmail into their envelope and send it back to 'em...
In the same token, whenever a website asks for an email address, I always use abuse@localhost or postmaster@localhost or root@localhost... so they can spam their own abuse department:)
I don't remember where I read it (sorry - the only cite I can find is my own rather imperfect memory!) but several years ago, I read an article that stated that innovations follow an S curve -- periods of slow technological growth, periods of INCREDIBLE advancements, periods of slow growth. The slow-growth periods tend to be used to refine the advancements that were made in the fast-growth period.
A brief history of civilization: Ogg invented the wheel, his rival Grugluk discovered fire... then not much happened for a while... then the Greek civilization (Plato, Socrates, etc) -- there were incredible insights into mathematics, philosophy, the sciences, etc. Then there was a long period of slow technological growth, then the Roman empire (aquaducts, etc), then slow growth, then the Middle Ages (Chivalry, the Magna Carta), then little happened until Rennaissance (advancements in Art, Sciences), then the Industrial Revolution (steam power, etc), then the 20th century (flight, medicine, electricity, communications)
In my opinion, we are starting the top of the S curve -- slowing down of technological advancements, and refining the technology we invented in the past 100 years. We have invented new technologies SO FAST we have not had time to explore the ramifications of that technology. We are starting to advance society to catch up with technology now (Napster, IP laws, etc)
I predict the next 50 years or so will be used to smooth all the wrinkles in society caused by all this new tech. Then the cycle will start again.
I grew up on the Minnesota - South Dakota border (Went to college in SD), and have travelled fairly extensively in the US, as well as a couple of trips abroad (to China and Turkey) and have had NO trouble communicating anywhere I have gone. This is (IMHO) mainly due to the effect of global communication (specifically, television). EVERYONE in the United States hears Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Al Gore, etc. speaking on a daily basis -- and this gives a common base that we can all relate to. Admittedly, this phenomenon is fairly local (country-specific, for the most part). When was the last time anyone in the US heard Malaysia's Prime Minister speak? By the same token, who in Malaysia could tell me why the phrase "Wazzzaaaaaap" is completely annoying?? I assume even Malaysians have heard Al Gore speak though -- in their news commentary about how stupid Americans are...:)
However, languages DO have a common bond, even globally. This bond is the global traveller. It has become INCREDIBLY easy to travel to various parts of the world, and travellers are commonplace nowdays. Travel from Minneapolis, MN to Beijing, China takes half a day or so. Just 100 years ago, travel from Minneapolis to Beijing was virtually unthinkable -- it'd take WEEKS to get there...
Also, corporations are very commonplace as well. On my last day in Ankara, Turkey, I had gotten tired of the local cuisine, and decided I needed a taste of home. It was a matter of walking half a block in order to get my burger fix -- and the teenage kid behind the counter at the Burger King had absolutely no trouble with "Double Whopper with cheese, fries, and a Coke please" -- although I was a bit confused as to why he wanted to know if I wanted cat soup with my meal... Cat soup??? Aah... Catsup -- Ketchup!
IMHO, as global travel becomes easier, and global communication becomes more prevalent, these barriers will be broken down further - until at some point, everyone will know two languages - Global (some variant of English, most likely), and their local dielect (be it South Dakota drawl, Mandarin Chinese, or whatever).
interesting comment. In fact, when I saw "up up down down left right left right B A start" my first thought was "Did that actually work? You gotta hit SELECT in there!"
(I assume you meant "those with friends hit SELECT"...)
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VERY interesting. Thank you for the correction - I could have SWORN I had read it was sterilized and I cannot believe they didn't do that!!!
We don't know enough about the constraints for life to make the assumption "it's too cold there." Life has been found to thrive here on Earth in all kinds of places that should not be able to sustain it (the black smokers in the ocean's depths, on the sides of radiation pools, etc) and has also been proven to be able to survive a trip through space (which is the whole reason for the concern about sterilization of these probes. If the trip through space would perform the sterilization for us, this would not be an issue!)
IMHO designing a problem to land on another body and not sterlizing it is a GROSS breach of ethics. I am very upset / disappointed by the ESA's decision. Yes, sterilization is very expensive. Yes, sterilization is potentially damaging to the probe itself. Yes, it's important!
it's because they sterilized the probe they are sending to Titan, but the spacecraft they sent into Jupiter was NOT fully sterilized -- they couldn't guarantee there would be no contamination, so they took the safe approach.
With Huygens, they can be much more confident they will not accidentally contaminate anything.
Here's a list of what they have going FOR them.
As a joke, I changed my wife's homepage to badgerbadgerbadger. SHE KEPT IT!!!!! It's been her homepage for a couple months now.
It turns out my year-old daughter LOVES the badger song. She giggles and laughs at "A SNAKE! A SNAKE!! oooh... it's a snake"
So now every time my wife surfs I gotta put up with the badger song. Worst backfire to a practical joke ever. I have nightmares about badgers & mushrooms now.
I guess I wasn't horribly clear either. I am agreeing with you. The Xprize is a great first step, but it's JUST the first step. I was just differentiating between altitude and LEO and specifically stating that once we hit 100KM, altitude doesn't matter anymore - the next step has to be LEO (and I was going into greater detail for the readers who get "going into space" confused with "orbiting" -- that seems to be a common occurrance)
:(
The BIGGEST obstacle the X-prize is useful for overcoming is the attitude that "space is so tough that it requires government involvement" -- that attitude has GOT to be overcome before we can ever make a stab at getting off this rock -- and we overcome the psychological aspect by taking baby steps like the X-prize.
Note: You're right --unless you're careful, high altitude will allow you to make planetfall as a small smoking cinder. Orbital velocity will allow you to make a big black smear across several states
Altitude really is relatively meaningless (after the 100KM limit is reached - that altitude is useful for proving commercial ability to work in an airless environment -- rocket technologies, stabilization of the craft, etc). After you get into space, Orbital ALTITUDE doesn't matter so much as Orbital VELOCITY.
you can get HIGH without having to go FAST. But you're still not in orbit. In order to orbit, you have to be going fast enough horizontally that you "miss" the Earth as you fall - you still fall, but you are falling in a circle... Orbital velicity for the shuttle (at a typical altitude 300 km) is approximately 8 km/s (18,000 mph).
In order to return to Earth from 300 km up, the straight falling velocity (discounting air resistance, which is quite substantial!) is 1.7KM/s (approx 3800mph).
As you can see, slowing down from orbit (18,000mph) is quite a bit more difficult than just slowing down from a great height (3800mph).
The X-prize demonstrates the usability and reusability of commercial rocket engines. This is a major step for for commercialization of space. The next step would be orbital velocity, which is quite a bit more difficult than just getting up into space...
Back in '95 or so, a friend of mine broke up with his girlfriend. He was afraid she'd sabotage his computer, so he asked me if I could store it for a few days.
At the time, he had a BRAND SPANKING NEW pentium 166, and I was stuck with a lowly 486. He was constantly making fun of my old, slow box. I told him "sure you can keep it here - but one of these days I may get ambitious and swap motherboards on ya..."
I then proceeded to write a program that EXACTLY imitated my 486 POST test - right down to the little clicking sound as it SLOWLY counted up to grand total of 8M RAM installed. I put my program at the top of his autoexec.bat
I went into his BIOS and disabled his POST display, and disabled his external cache. This effectively cut his speed to about 1/4 and showed my fake POST screen on bootup.
I gave it back to him and watched as he powered it on. I've NEVER seen someone turn so red in my life -- I could have sworn I saw smoke coming out his ears, and that little vein in his forehead was pulsing so hard I thought he was gonna have a stroke! He laughs about it now, but he didn't see the humor in it at all that day!
My grandmother used to get a persistant telemarketer who kept calling and asked for the man of the house. My grandfather was a rancher and was never in the house during the day, so my grandmother would always say he isn't in...
Finally one rainy day my grandpa WAS in the house and happened to answer the phone.
"Is the man of the house in?"
"This is..."
<telemarketer begins sales pitch>
"I'm sorry, my wife makes all the financial decisions" <CLICK>
In typical Rutan style (and the Rutans DEFINATELY have a style all their own) this bird doesn't look like it should even EXIST outside an Anime cartoon, much less FLY -- and only Burt Rutan could come up with a working prototype powered by LAUGHING GAS AND OLD TIRES!
:) By the way, Burt pronounces NASA as "Nay-Say". Kinda tells ya something...
And in typical Rutan fashion, it'll probably work perfectly the first flight, and cost less than 1/10th what NASA could do it for
Interesting story:
I attended a lecture Burt gave last year (at Oshkosh Airventure 2002) and he was talking about the Proteus. They were involved in an air quality experiment. There were several layers of airplanes in a vertical stack -- the Proteus was assigned the 65,000ft layer, and a NASA U2 was given the 68,000ft assignment. The U2 (which was only flying 3000ft above the Proteus) had a full maintenance crew of 40. The Proteus came with a crew of 2! Rutan stated that they spent most of their day on the ground, playing cards and waiting for the U2 crew to finish maintenance....
Here is a picture of the model 6012 that I've got: http://www.oneforall-int.com/ussite/urc6012.html
And here is a picture of the model 8910 (more advanced, with learning capabilities, etc): http://www.oneforall-int.com/ussite/urc8910.html
A clickable link to the One For All info site: http://www.hifi-remote.com/ofa/
A good universal remote site, with reviews, forums, etc: http://www.remotecentral.com
You may be interested in the One For All remotes -- they actually DO all of that! :) (or nearly all that anyway)
:) I also found I didn't need learning capabilities (at this time) because all the functions I was interested in have codes already.
:)
Check out http://www.hifi-remote.com/ofa/
They fit in one hand, and most have real buttons.
They are filled with codes for lots of units, and have Advanced Codes as well. For example, the default codes for my DVD player did not include the Zoom function. I looked up the Advanced Code for Zoom, and programmed it in, and now Zoom works.
They also have many Discrete Codes that are not available on the original remotes. My DVD player has an on/off button. Push it once to turn it on. Push it again to turn it off. I didn't want that. I JUST wanted ON. I set up a macro using the Discrete On function that switches my receiver to DVD, switches my TV to DVD mode, and turns ON the DVD player. I have another button that flips everything back to TV. When I hit the DVD button again, It switches back to DVD. I needed the discrete code because the original on/off code would have turned the DVD player OFF when I switched back...
Computer connection: They don't have USB capability, but they do have a serial cable that plugs into the JP1 port on the remote - you can have total program control from your computer. Note that the model I have has the firmware for the JP1 but doesn't have the actual connector - you would have to solder the connector into the holes provided. Not a big deal, but it does mean a little hardware hacking. The "nicer" OFA remotes have the actual connector already.
Learning: Most of them have learning capability. My current one does not, but I only spent $14 on the remote. I returned an $80 remote because my $14 OFA worked BETTER and was more hackable
TiVO/DVD jog. I mentioned my DVD flipping above. I don't have a TiVO so I can't comment. But I haven't heard any complaints.
Intuitive layout. The guide buttons are arranged in a circle (with Select in the center) and are located right under your thumb when you hold it. The channel up/down and volume up/down are also very well placed. I find it very intuitive.
Macros - every button except Setup and the Device Selection buttons can be reprogrammed as macros. And even the Device buttons can be reprogrammed via the JP1 connection. My only gripe is that there is a 1-second delay between each command in the macros (this is to allow a device to complete the previous command before continuing with the next command). My understanding is that the timedelay can be modified via JP1.
Multiple devices. My $14 remote is an 8-device remote.
Config files. the JP1 interface allows you to backup your setup to computer.
Reprogrammable buttons. See Macros, above.
Battery door. Seems sturdy to me. no problems so far
Multifunction buttons. Take a look at the OFA Kameleon (http://www.remotecentral.com/ureview/62.htm) -- not only does it have multifunction buttons, but only the buttons that are used with a particular device are illuminated.
FYI My remote is the One For All model 6012, purchased from Walmart for $14.
Congrats!! I know exactly how you're feeling right now - my daughter was born 2 weeks ago :) :) :)
:)
Since I'm new at this "father thing" as well, I am only qualified to give advice on pregnancy and the 1st couple weeks of life...
PREGNANCY:
1) Backrubs are good. Backrubs are VERY good. For valentines day, I got my wife a one-hour "pregnancy massage" at a local spa (focusing on all the typical sore spots a pregnant woman has). Get her one of these. Cost is no object. Schedule it for approximately a month before the baby is due. She'll need it by then.
2) Understanding and patience is good. your wife's body will be undergoing massive changes - physical, chemical, and emotional. These changes will NOT be understood (by either of you) and can be frightening and even embarrassing. Go with the flow. Be there for her. She needs you more than ever before.
3) Get her things. "How about a glass of ice water, honey?" Be proactive - anticipate her needs. It will be appreciated.
4) Have everything ready in advance. Get the room painted. They have "starter kits" with all sorts of things in them that you wouldn't have thought of. Buy a couple packs of diapers. Make sure the room has a good nightlight - you'll be stumbling into there at 3am on a daily basis.
5) There is an online magazine (with accompanying deadtree mag) called ePregnancy. http://www.epregnancy.com/ -- Sign up for the weekly email. It's very good at explaining exactly what is happening week to week. The weekly emails are tailored to the correct week of pregnancy. My wife really looked forward to reading about what is happening to her each week.
6) Get the carseat a few weeks in advance. Take a carseat class BEFORE buying the seat. Once you buy it, PUT IT IN THE CAR and make sure you understand how it works. Do NOT wait until your child is born. oh, and SEND IN THE REGISTRATION CARD for the carseat. I cannot stress that enough. I know, it gets you put on another junkmail list. But it also gets you put on the carseat recall list. You do NOT want to be using an unsafe seat. TAKE THE CARSEAT CLASS. Over 80% of people using carseats are using them incorrectly.
DELIVERY
1) Take a prenatal class. Make sure they do a tour of the delivery unit. Make sure you know where to go IN ADVANCE - the Big Day arrives and you'll be too panicked to have to search for the right entrance to the hospital.
1) Be there for her. Be patient and understanding with her. She's SCARED AS HELL at this point. She's heard all sorts of horror stories about pain. Comfort her. Do what she asks
2) Epidurals are a godsend. We live in the 21st century. Modern medicine is a GOOD thing. Don't be afraid to take advantage of it.
3) Bring a sandwich. You'll be in the delivery room for a while. Your wife will need you there. Make sure it's not a stinky sandwich (I threatened to bring tunafish...)
4) Bring CDs of soft, soothing music (ie Enya). It helps during the contractions. We found a nice CD of Dolphin music at walmart for $4 or so - it's got ocean sounds, soft piano music, etc. Worked great.
5) If your wife is planning on natural delivery (ie no drugs), make sure to have a "focal point" she can concentrate on during the contractions. Also, take your wedding ring off -- she'll break your fingers squeezing your hand against your ring!
6) Help in the delivery. I held one of my wife's legs and counted while she pushed. Watch during the birth. IT'S AMAZING!! It WILL change your outlook on life.
7) Don't be surprised by anything that occurs. There is no modesty left during delivery. Just enjoy it. it's a TRUE miracle.
AFTER YOUR CHILD IS BORN
1) no visitors while you're in the hospital. Use the time to recover and enjoy your new child. Also use the time in the hospital for education. Those nurses know a LOT. Rely on them.
2)
Why did the computer engineer get Halloween and Christmas confused?
Because Oct 31 = Dec 25
When I was in college, a friend related a story from when he was in high school. He thoroughly cleaned out his windshield washer system (pump, reservoir, tubing, etc) and ran the tubing to a nozzle under the dash. He then filled the reservoir with alcohol , and was able to make his own mixed drinks while road-tripping. He even hooked up a reversible pump so if he ever got pulled over, he could just suck the drink back into the reservoir!
:) )
(yeah I know, DISGUSTING. and STUPID too!! but he was in high school, so he was young & stupid by definition
Anyway, his "system" worked great until one day when his dad used the car & the windshield was dirty.......
I had a similar situation -- I was laid off the 1st of the year. In the following months, my previous firm contacted me regularly, mostly asking how I was doing, letting me know they wanted me back & were looking for ways to accomplish that, etc.
:)
Then one day I got a call from them. They had a customer who wanted some work done, but it was such a small job that just drafting the agreement would be more expensive than the job was worth. They contacted me and told me if I wanted to freelance the job, they'd put me in touch with the customer. I accepted it (of course). it turned out that it was too small for even a freelance charge, but I answered the guys question and it generated positive advertising for my previous firm.
A month later, I got another call from them -- another freelance job - this one was for the wife of the head of my old firm. I again accepted it and his wife was happy with my results.
Then my old manager called. He didn't have a freelance offer this time -- he wanted some advice on how to collect unemployment! (yeah, business got so bad the managers were being let go...) So I was very helpful & supportive of him too -- told him where to go to sign up, what the process was, etc.
Then I got one last call -- now I'm working full-time for my old firm again. They were so happy with my attitude and willingness to help them out even after letting me go that they found a spot for me & I'm gainfully employed again -- with my full benefits just like I never left (3 weeks vacation, I'm vested, etc). Admittedly, it WAS a paycut from my old salary, but in this market, I'm not complaining
Sorry about all the rambling. I guess what I'm trying to say in a nutshell is: Don't burn your bridges. Having a positive attitude and being willing to help them out can never hurt - it can only help. Even if they don't have any openings, they may hear of other firms that need people & could suggest you -- or give you a positive review when a future employer starts checking references. You never know when someone may be talking to them and your name may come up...
The other reason to use your own money is DRIVE. If you NEED a sucessful business in order to put beans&rice on the table, you have a MUCH stronger motivation for success. Problems arise? You roll up your sleeves, dig in, and FIX IT (or die trying) because you need to feed your family. If someone else is funding you, and you run into problems, "well, gee, oh well. That's too bad. Glad it wasn't my money."
My cable company (Charter) has implemented Tiered pricing -- however, they are NOT doing it by gigabytes per month. Instead they have implemented a speed tier:
:)
256Kb/s down -- approx. $20/month
768Kb/s down -- approx. $30/month
1.5Mb/s down -- approx. $40/month
the upload is capped at 128Kb/s for all tiers I believe.
This strategy allows the heavy bandwidth users to choose the fast connection (and pay for it) while the "check your email and look at tomorrows weather on the 'net" person can choose the cheaper options. It's a good comprimise, IMHO -- and you aren't penalized if a new version of redhat comes out
It is a full linux distribution, based on redhat 7.2, and is your typical linux firewall/router, but also comes with Snort, SSH, Junkbuster, Apache, proftpd, samba, cups, webmin, MRTG, etc.
The interface is web-based or commandline-based.
I am currently running it on a 486-66, 20M ram system, and the routing is very quick (I don't notice any slowdowns at all), but administration is a bit slow with this old box.
I'd highly recommend it.
Choosy perverts choose .gif ...
My compilations tend to be relatively quick (15 - 30 seconds or so) - I work on small sub-components, then once I've unit tested them, I submit them to the group for integration into the main engine. That compile tends to take a bit longer, but I don't have to do that :)
Also, a breakdown of my coding time is:
98% frustration (bang head against monitor)
1.5% inspiration ("OH MY GOD I was so STUPID! How could I have missed that?!?!?!)
0.5% waiting for compiles
:)
I agree. Business-critical (or Anything-critical) machines should NEVER be overclocked.
:) Nothing important is lost.
:) No matter how fast my CPU is, I can't think or type any quicker...
I overclock my home machine (Thunderbird 800, OC'd to 935 (8.5 * 110mhz), with PC100 SDRAM OC'd to 147mhz (HCLK+PCICLK = 110+37)) but that's my HOME system, used for gaming, balancing the checkbook, hobbyist coding (currently I'm working on a team writing a WWI flightsim) etc. NOTHING business-critical.
I would NEVER overclock my work box. That's a good way to end up unemployed!
"How is that module coming? You have an 8:00 am Friday deadline you know"
"Uh boss... I won't be able to make that deadline because I am busy trying to put out the fire on my CPU."
My wife has her own computer, and I have everything important backed up (and copied onto her machine) so if mine dies, I just can't play any games for a while until I get it fixed
Stability is FAR more important than speed in today's computing environment. Heck, the bottleneck really isn't processor speed anymore anyway - it's 'net connection speed, hard drive access speed, memory speed, etc. I've noticed my 135mhz overclock has resulted in about 10% improvement in benchmarks, just a couple FPS improvement in the games I play, and has a ZERO speed improvement in my coding speed
What I do is take all the pamplets, letters, credit card apps, etc. and shred it. I then stuff the shredded junkmail into their envelope and send it back to 'em...
... so they can spam their own abuse department :)
In the same token, whenever a website asks for an email address, I always use abuse@localhost or postmaster@localhost or root@localhost
I don't remember where I read it (sorry - the only cite I can find is my own rather imperfect memory!) but several years ago, I read an article that stated that innovations follow an S curve -- periods of slow technological growth, periods of INCREDIBLE advancements, periods of slow growth. The slow-growth periods tend to be used to refine the advancements that were made in the fast-growth period.
A brief history of civilization: Ogg invented the wheel, his rival Grugluk discovered fire... then not much happened for a while... then the Greek civilization (Plato, Socrates, etc) -- there were incredible insights into mathematics, philosophy, the sciences, etc. Then there was a long period of slow technological growth, then the Roman empire (aquaducts, etc), then slow growth, then the Middle Ages (Chivalry, the Magna Carta), then little happened until Rennaissance (advancements in Art, Sciences), then the Industrial Revolution (steam power, etc), then the 20th century (flight, medicine, electricity, communications)
In my opinion, we are starting the top of the S curve -- slowing down of technological advancements, and refining the technology we invented in the past 100 years. We have invented new technologies SO FAST we have not had time to explore the ramifications of that technology. We are starting to advance society to catch up with technology now (Napster, IP laws, etc)
I predict the next 50 years or so will be used to smooth all the wrinkles in society caused by all this new tech. Then the cycle will start again.
Agreed.
:)
I grew up on the Minnesota - South Dakota border (Went to college in SD), and have travelled fairly extensively in the US, as well as a couple of trips abroad (to China and Turkey) and have had NO trouble communicating anywhere I have gone. This is (IMHO) mainly due to the effect of global communication (specifically, television). EVERYONE in the United States hears Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Al Gore, etc. speaking on a daily basis -- and this gives a common base that we can all relate to. Admittedly, this phenomenon is fairly local (country-specific, for the most part). When was the last time anyone in the US heard Malaysia's Prime Minister speak? By the same token, who in Malaysia could tell me why the phrase "Wazzzaaaaaap" is completely annoying?? I assume even Malaysians have heard Al Gore speak though -- in their news commentary about how stupid Americans are...
However, languages DO have a common bond, even globally. This bond is the global traveller. It has become INCREDIBLY easy to travel to various parts of the world, and travellers are commonplace nowdays. Travel from Minneapolis, MN to Beijing, China takes half a day or so. Just 100 years ago, travel from Minneapolis to Beijing was virtually unthinkable -- it'd take WEEKS to get there...
Also, corporations are very commonplace as well. On my last day in Ankara, Turkey, I had gotten tired of the local cuisine, and decided I needed a taste of home. It was a matter of walking half a block in order to get my burger fix -- and the teenage kid behind the counter at the Burger King had absolutely no trouble with "Double Whopper with cheese, fries, and a Coke please" -- although I was a bit confused as to why he wanted to know if I wanted cat soup with my meal... Cat soup??? Aah... Catsup -- Ketchup!
IMHO, as global travel becomes easier, and global communication becomes more prevalent, these barriers will be broken down further - until at some point, everyone will know two languages - Global (some variant of English, most likely), and their local dielect (be it South Dakota drawl, Mandarin Chinese, or whatever).
interesting comment. In fact, when I saw "up up down down left right left right B A start" my first thought was "Did that actually work? You gotta hit SELECT in there!"
...)
(I assume you meant "those with friends hit SELECT"