Oracle had a previous venture into the database hardware business, the nCube. They bought the parallel computer company and attempted to build a database / video-on-demand server from it.
Airplanes used fabric skins for years. They travel much faster than automobiles, so the strength isn't an issue. Even during WWII, most aluminum bodied aircraft used fabric covered control surfaces to allow easy repair of combat damage -- it is much easier to sew a new patch over a rip than it is to rivet aluminum patches.
The SpamAssassin test USER_IN_DEF_WHITELIST checks to see if the sender is in the list of companies that are on its built-in white list. Network Solutions, internic, register.com, nytimes.com, amazon.com, mypoints, paypal, the FT, Palm, Handspring and others are all on it.
They don't sell access to it, so it is not the same as what Microsoft is doing. It is similar, however, in that some companies get a free pass (well, up to -15) for any mail that they send out.
I run several projects on SourceForge, including autopilot, that have had all of the AOL subscribers removed from the mailing lists due to spam bounces. Since so many AOL users receive mail from SourceForge hosted mailing lists, it does not take many accidentally clicking the spam button to blacklist the SF servers.
I submitted a support request to SF about it, and they said (rightfully) that it is AOL's problem.
I bet it allows messages from General Jack D Ripper or any email that contains the secret phrase "purity of essence", "peace on earth" or "precious bodily fluids".
You can buy your own from Rotomotion, or build your own with the GPLed version of the Rotomotion software from autopilot.sourceforge.net.
We've been working on it for a while and now have the hardware and the code to fly a helicopter or other rotocraft autonomously. And it's Free Software, too.
he first created the popular axiom "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magick."
Which of course leads to the corollary: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
To be pedantic, that is the contrapositive of Clark's Law. The contrapositive is a rule of inference that allows you to reverse the consequent and antecedent: if P implies Q, then not Q implies not P.
Commercial UAVs are already available
on
A.I. Helicopter?
·
· Score: 5, Informative
I've been working on building a Linux based UAV and have GPLed the software for it. We're also selling turnkey helicopter UAVs that look very much like the Mantis in the article through my company, Rotomotion.
There is no AI onboard, so you don't have to worry about it becoming self aware and joining Skynet. We have a few more years before the machines take over.
Re:Congratulations!
on
TAM 5 Has landed
·
· Score: 3, Informative
martingunnarsson wrote:
This is really a cool project, and while it might seem like a geeky hobby thing, I think it's much more important than that. I think we'll se R/C helicopters that move around on their own [...]
Like autopilot.sourceforge.net? It is a Free Software autopilot for RC helicopters that has successfully flown for several km and been adapted to numerous different helicopter models. Rotomotion, LLC builds a commercial UAV based on the software and also sells kits for more technically inclined users of the software.
The flight over the ocean shows that they can handle long distance flights as well, at lest in 50% of the cases:-)
Although TAM5 was a fixed wing, not a rotorcraft, and the success rate was more like 20% (1 out of 5)...
I'v been running TopGun SSH for years on my 3Com Palm Pilot. Originally, I ran it over CDPD with a Minstrel, although entering shell commands via Grafiti was painful. With my
Treo 300, I now have a "real" keyboard and unlimited data so I can use it without worrying about how many packets are sent back and forth.
Same here. Our early helicopters used CF 802.11 cards, but the cheap patch antennas could not handle the vibration. We're now using a D-Link ethernet bridge with 100baseT for the onboard network.
His laptop control station is win32 though.
We're not! Although the network layer and gui are all portable and do run on Linux, Mac OS X, and Win32.
The hardware is for sale from Rotomotion, too, so you can build your own.
This is one of the few peices of computer technology that needs to have a better upgrade path... I mean, I get a new video card every year or two... and a complete new system at least once every 4 years... the damn keyboard hasn't changed much in at least the last 10...
In fact, I haven't upgraded my keyboard in 10 years. I love my Model M IBM keyboard. It has outlasted eight computers so far. It seems that
many other people
like the Model M enough to
write fan-sites about them.
I've written an article on
Why Apple doesn't get it (and
EMusic does). Unlike Apple, EMusic has no DRM, offers real MP3's, supports
any platform and charges a flat rate. I go into more detail in the article, including how they can improve the service.
When are companies going to build a USB controller for these things?
Rotomotion will sell you an embedded Linux based autopilot that you control with 802.11. It's not USB -- it is even better. Their products are based on the GPLed autopilot.sourceforge.net code and designs.
include the sendmail X-Auth warning (-1.008 points)
have a sig dash with dense sig (another -6.4 points)
include some diff -u output (-6.027)
Have 'foo@bar wrote:' attribution (-6.6)
Have quote text (-3.3)
Fake a good Exchange ID (-5.8)
At this point, the message has a -45.135 bonus and would have to be super spam to be scored as spam. Let's hope none of those scum read the comments on Slashdot...
foreach (@list) { $list[$i] = 'No jam today!' if ($_ =~/jam/); }
While I understand your desire for the array index in question, it is not necessary in your example. $_ is an alias to the current list element and is writable. You can do your example as:
foreach( @list ) { $_ = 'No jam today!' if/jam/ }
You're correct that tracking the index on your own will be confusing due to last, next, redo, etc.
C is almost always compiled. Perl and PHP are almost always interpreted.
Perl is always compiled and no Perl interpreters exist. When ever you run perl on a Perl script, it is compiled and then executed by the Perl virtual machine.
Re:Parachutes possible
on
Fanwing Planes?
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Outland Traveller wrote:
I seem to remember a report of the first successful real-world use of a emergency parachute for light aircraft. A cessna-like plane had its engines cut own and the pilot was able to parachute his entire plane to safety.
- It's running Linux! That's great! This means that people will be able to reprogram it!
[...]
- Wow, imagine the cool things you could do with this!
[...]
2.) Use Linux as the OS
[...]
3.) Place sensors on them
[...]
4.) Support 802.11
Even better than a car is a helicopter. It meets all of those requirements, and more! We're using an onboard Linux iPAQ running GPLed flight control software that communicates its sensor telemetry over 802.11 to a Linux groundstation.
Current sensors are six degree of freedom, three axis gyros and accelerometers, a GPS, sonar and a two axis magnetometer (compass).
The next trick will for somebody on slashdot to post a page where they've made a *car mod* for their laptop/etc to interface with the RC
How about a remote control helicopter that flies under control of the onboard Linux box? And it's all GPLed, too.
Re:inertia and power and calibration
on
Gyroscopic Mouse
·
· Score: 5, Informative
1. I thought gyroscopes had to have some mass in relation the forces applied to them in order to stay oriented. It seems like a light 'scope could easily be knocked out of whack easily in a handheld device.
It uses Piezo gyros that are angular rate sensors, not vertical references. There is no flywheel to introduce weird mass effects. Anyway, most flywheel gyros are mechanized in gymbals so that they do not exert any force; instead they remain stationary and can be used for a vertical reference.
2. These 'scopes would require lots of power to keep spinning.
They're solid state and have almost no moving parts. The Murata ENC05-E sensors used in the older ones draw 2 mA. The MG100 used in the new ones draws about 20 mA.
3. How do you orient this thing to begin with?
It only senses change in angular position, not absolute position. That means that there is no orientation required.
And there is one for Linux: the autopilot simulator. It's GPLed and easier to extend for your hacking projects. I'm using to help tune our
helicopter autopilot, which is also available under the GPL. Unlike the DragonFlyer, our
rev 2.2 IMU (also GPLed)
is a full inertial guidance system with GPS interface.
Why are you using a MAX231. Doesn't that require charge pumps (Capacitors). Live a little and spend the extra $2 on a MAX233 that doesn't require the pumps.
I wish the MAX233 were available in a DIP10 -- power, ground, Tx/Rx 1, Tx/Rx 2 -- rather than the DIP20. It is larger than the 231 with the two charge pump capacitors.
Space is a valuable commodity here.
If I could do SMD work by hand, I would!
If you go with the AT90S-8515 you still get plenty of I/O, PWM, Serial I/O, though you'll have to hand code some A-D conversion. Maybe that's why you're going with the 163?
The 163 offers a hardware multiply, self programing memory, an ADC, twice as much memory (both flash and SRAM) and a few more timers. We're using all of those features. The price at DigiKey is only two dollar difference between the 8515-8 and the 163.
Thanks for the suggestions! Sign up for the mailing list -- we can always use help with the engineering side of things.
Slashdot Mirror
Oracle had a previous venture into the database hardware business, the nCube. They bought the parallel computer company and attempted to build a database / video-on-demand server from it.
Airplanes used fabric skins for years. They travel much faster than automobiles, so the strength isn't an issue. Even during WWII, most aluminum bodied aircraft used fabric covered control surfaces to allow easy repair of combat damage -- it is much easier to sew a new patch over a rip than it is to rivet aluminum patches.
The SpamAssassin test USER_IN_DEF_WHITELIST checks to see if the sender is in the list of companies that are on its built-in white list. Network Solutions, internic, register.com, nytimes.com, amazon.com, mypoints, paypal, the FT, Palm, Handspring and others are all on it. They don't sell access to it, so it is not the same as what Microsoft is doing. It is similar, however, in that some companies get a free pass (well, up to -15) for any mail that they send out.
I submitted a support request to SF about it, and they said (rightfully) that it is AOL's problem.
I bet it allows messages from General Jack D Ripper or any email that contains the secret phrase "purity of essence", "peace on earth" or "precious bodily fluids".
There is no AI onboard, so you don't have to worry about it becoming self aware and joining Skynet. We have a few more years before the machines take over.
I'v been running TopGun SSH for years on my 3Com Palm Pilot. Originally, I ran it over CDPD with a Minstrel, although entering shell commands via Grafiti was painful. With my Treo 300, I now have a "real" keyboard and unlimited data so I can use it without worrying about how many packets are sent back and forth.
The hardware is for sale from Rotomotion, too, so you can build your own.
I've written an article on Why Apple doesn't get it (and EMusic does). Unlike Apple, EMusic has no DRM, offers real MP3's, supports any platform and charges a flat rate. I go into more detail in the article, including how they can improve the service.
- send my mail with gnus (-6.4 points)
- add an 'X-Cron-Env' header (another -6.4 points)
- add a fake 'In-reply-to' (-3.3 points)
- include the sendmail X-Auth warning (-1.008 points)
- have a sig dash with dense sig (another -6.4 points)
- include some diff -u output (-6.027)
- Have 'foo@bar wrote:' attribution (-6.6)
- Have quote text (-3.3)
- Fake a good Exchange ID (-5.8)
At this point, the message has a -45.135 bonus and would have to be super spam to be scored as spam. Let's hope none of those scum read the comments on Slashdot...The new business features allowed me to replace SQL-Ledger with it. I'm happily generating invoices and handling payroll with GNU Cash 1.8.2 now.
Current sensors are six degree of freedom, three axis gyros and accelerometers, a GPS, sonar and a two axis magnetometer (compass).
We're still workin gon the cool things you could do with it. Send in your ideas...
Gyration has more details on their technology online. I evaluated the gyros for use in my GPL autopilot project, but decided on the Tokin CG-16D units instead.
And there is one for Linux: the autopilot simulator. It's GPLed and easier to extend for your hacking projects. I'm using to help tune our helicopter autopilot, which is also available under the GPL. Unlike the DragonFlyer, our rev 2.2 IMU (also GPLed) is a full inertial guidance system with GPS interface.
Thanks for the suggestions! Sign up for the mailing list -- we can always use help with the engineering side of things.