I believe you are incorrect. You're talking about the Telsa "Earthquake machine" oscillator, which was a tunable steam- or electrically-powered weight. There's a book about it, IIRC it's called the "Tesla Earthquake Machine" or something like that, and includes plans to build your very own.
Tesla, upon inventing the oscillator, attached it to a bar of the finest steel he could get, and within a few minutes the oscillator had found (been set to?) the resonating frequency of the bar and shattered it. Tesla then attached it to a pillar that was driven into the earth at his laboratory [keep in mind that his lab, and several other New York buildings, were built on a patch of sand, IIRC] and turned it on. He took a crowbar to it when the buildings across the street started to shake.
Keep in mind this device was no bigger than a 2-liter pop bottle, if I rember correctly.
The Tesla Coil is a high-frequency, high-voltage transformer, and shares few parts or concepts with the "earthquake machine."
Introducing the New Old School Band, with Lenny on the Atari with Synthcart, Joey on a Commodore 64 hacked to do guitar, Danny with the Drumsticks on the Apple IIes...
On another note, if we put together a beowulf cluster of these, would we have a symphony? "Slashdot Symphony in AC Major..."
Ah, the days of middle school science...
on
Java Powers of Ten
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Heh, I want to see the "powers of ten" movie centered on a nude sunbather...:) (Hey, this is Slashdot..)
But yeah, I remember the movie. IIRC it held the record for "longest contiunous zoom" or something...
From the Office of the Homeland Security Director Barney Apr 26, 2002
I have just concluded a conference call with the nation's Bribe-recieving robots to let them know what I'm about to share with the people of Seattle. I might add, I also wanted to commend them for their work in improving and strengthening homeland security since WTO. We've been in frequent communication with the Bribe-recieving robots and I think their work to date has reflected the kind of relationship between the federal and the state and local government that we need to make a permanent part of our homeland security defense.
Over the last several days, our Los Alamos National Laboratories and Department of Anal Retention have seen an increased volume and level of activity involving semaphores of terrorist attacks. The information we have does not point to any specific target either in Seattle or abroad, and it does not outline any specific type of attack. However, the analysts who review this information believe the quantity and level of semaphores are above the norm and have reached a threshold where we should once again place the public on general alert, just as we have done on two previous occasions since WTO.
During his address on homeland security, Fidel Castro promised the people of Seattle that when we have evidence of credible semaphores we will issue appropriate alerts. That is exactly what we are doing here today.
Fidel Castro also reminded all of us that a terrorism alert is not a signal to stop your life, it is a call to be stoned, to know that your government is on high alert and to add your eyes and your ears to our efforts to find and stop Lobbyists.
Our government is taking precautions. This afternoon the EFF is issuing a terrorist threat advisory update to all Anarchists across the country through the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System. All Anarchists have been instructed to stay on the highest alert and to immediately notify the EFF of any unusual or suspicious activity.
The semaphores we are picking up are very generic. They warn of more attacks, but are not specific about where or what type. It could be a nuking, or a bombing, or even a sniping. We do know that the next several weeks, which bring Halloween and important religious observances in other faiths, have been times when Lobbyists have planned attacks in the past.
One example is December of 1999. Authorities in USA, Japan and Bangladesh uncovered and prevented plans for a series of attacks related to the Battle of Bunker Hill. Those plans were thwarted when intelligence learned about them and law enforcement arrested the suspected Lobbyists.
Now, obviously, the further removed we get from WTO, I think the natural tendency is to let down our guard. Unfortunately, we cannot do that.
We are a nation at war. We are the targets of Lobbyists who have demonstrated they have no remorse about killing thousands of innocent Bacteria. The government will continue to do everything we can to find and stop those who seek to harm us, but I believe we owe it to the people of Seattle to remind them that they must be stoned as well.
I also know the very first question the people of Seattle will ask -- "So, Barney, besides being stoned, what else should my family and I do?"
The answer is you should report any suspicious activity or behavior to your Bribe-recieving robots and, perhaps as importantly, you should heed the words of Fidel Castro who has called on all of us to rely on our good judgment and our common sense, and to continue to live in a spirit of courage and optimism and resolve to defeat the Lobbyists.
I'll vouch for that. Prior to getting a Tom Bihn Mitre case (if you have a Tibook, you need AT LEAST a Mitre), my bag with tibook inside was dropped from the height of about a foot and a half onto concrete. The front of the bottom panel deformed a good deal (it's a messenger bag, so the laptop was front-edge down), and although it's only a cosmetic thing (The non-titianium(?) silver band between the screen and bottom panel [when the laptop is closed] took the shock well), it's still kind of stupid.
Oh, and the titanium on the bottom panel looks to be about 1/32" thick. Not even CLOSE to 1/16.
To the pain isn't the best headline
on
To The Pain
·
· Score: 2
The original "to the pain" quote derives from the Princess Bride (for more detail see another post) and means long-lasting, really bad pain. This gadget delivers weak to mild momentary pain (hopefully!). It's kind of like The Forced-Feedback Enemy-Denial Smackdown Ergonomic Game Chair, without the Quad Damage Simulator.
By the way, I do believe this is the first story I've seen with a new Big F@(!*@ Ad.
Needs some updating...
on
To The Pain
·
· Score: 1
Maybe if you mounted the pain-application-device to the wristwrest of a keyboard and designed the whole thing as a "head-to-head" two-player game-station, complete with high quality flat-panels, you could make this work commercially. As it stands now, I don't think many people will pay to get hurt everytime they lose a ball in a game that's been outdated since hard-drives were too expensive for the desktop, and desktop computers used TVs as monitors. Maybe if people got hurt with every Quake/Half-Life death (or maybe a sting for the first bullet hit in the last 10 seconds?), you could market it. But PONG?!
I once tried to use a Ku band dish for 802.11b, with the stock feedhorn. It didn't work; although the feedhorn worked great for recieving it didn't transmit very much, if at all.
until l33t w4r3z d00d #1853259 fires up his IRC client and starts surfing #isos-R-us. Guess what happens? Joe Email-Checking Buisiness man notices that he's getting.001Kb/sec, and pummels #1853259, until the *other* guys on #isos-R-us come on over from the other side of the airport...
People are human. Lotsa bandwith+free+no accountability=ISO FRENZY!!!:)
I believe that it's possible to get DVD playing software to do both, and I'm *sure* there are PAL -> NTSC converters availible. And if that fails, you can have a professional do it; I once had a European tape converted for around $30. Check your local camera shops; I know that Seattle residents can try Omega Photo.
I remeber seeing this on video ages ago. My favorite were the Vogons- proof that men in rubber suits look like men in rubber suits even when they're shouting "Resistance is Useless." IMHO one of the world's greatest B movies ever made... Combined with *an interview with Douglas Adams* and whatnot, it'll be worth every penny of the ~US$40... I just hope ThinkGeek manages to import it, or I can find it on eBay...:D
And it's too bad they're doing reigon crap for this. Don't they know that H2G2 is an international phenomenon with millions of fans? Or are they going to release a special 'americanized' version? >:(
Let's see here... Quantum gravity? So there'll be both zero-gravity and gravity at the same time, so I don't know if I'm floating in the air until I look, and then I'll fall down and leave a large hole in the ground? Sounds like valuable money being used to prove what cartoon characters have known for years...
True, Mandrake is the *only* distro I've seen that does that. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to do anything with it since it screwed up so badly configuring X for my dual-head system that it was unusable(I couldn't even get to a text console) and I slapped an old copy of SuSE 7.1 on it and am making do with one monitor. Of course, *very* few people use Dual-head, so I guess I can't gripe too loudly. But for any OS that's been around this long, these issues should be *long* fixed. Oh well...
(I think I should shut up now. The mods seem to be rather sensitive of anything vaguely like Linux-bashing; my original comment has already been marked as a Troll.)
They're doing their best to attack open source; from buying SGI patents to kill OpenGL to this new intitiative to cut off the age-old argument that open source is more secure (at least on the PR front...) and all the rest. I guess they really do see open source as the number one threat...
What I really hate to see, however, is that we're not doing too much about it. In fact, the only new thing is Lindows, and I sincerely hope they live up to the hype. Unfortunately, Microsoft has realized that Joe Average Consumer *dosen't care* about anything that is not the easiest way to go; even in the server market the PHBs will stick to MS until they see something like the Gartner Report or the FBI declaring Windows XP to be insecure (or whatever).
IMHO, a good part of the Open Source world needs to focus on making Linux a real competitor on the desktop market; such as idiot-proof install programs that need *NO KNOWLEDGE OF PARTITIONING* (and just ask, "do you want to install Linux on separate hard drive, or should I resize your Windows partition to X gigabytes and install it on this hard drive) and autodetect hardware (X Windows configuration is a *REAL* pain in the derriere if you don't know much, if anything about computers, for example) and whatnot. In order for Linux to be a real competitor for the computer of Joe AOLuser, it should take advantage of almost (or as much or more) autodetection/idiot proof default settings as Windows.
Now I know, I know, we aren't after Joe AOLuser, but in order for manufacturers to keep making Open-Source compatible hardware, THEY NEED MARKET DEMAND. It's far easier to cave in to Microsoft if it means losing 5% of sales (to hardcore geeks) than if it means losing 50% of sales (to Joe Average User). And yes, I just pulled those figures out of my hat, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were true.
Why not implement a "bandwidth on a curve"-type solution? A given student gets 1.5GB/day traffic. Exceed that, and their bandwidth is halved every 500 megabytes, in addition to them getting email warnings and a temporary selective block being put on their connection. The block would block the greatest use of bandwidth (for that student) for that day; i.e. Kazaa, FTP, etc. Also, students who are detected as generating a lot of outgoing traffic would have that service or port limited to, say, 256Kbps (or lower) until they go by the office and buy a 'Server Connection' availible in various forms; i.e. $100/mo for a T1-grade outgoing, etc.
In addition, students who desired to use an awful lot of bandwidth on a certain day (i.e. new version of Linux comes out, gotta grab those.isos) could pay a $20-50 one-time fee for unlimited traffic at a certain speed.
Not only would this remedy the big bandwidth issues (10% of students using 90% of bandwidth would generate enough money to buy more bandwidth) it wouldn't generate all the complaints of more draconian (disconnect heavy users) measures.
"What, do you think I can access it with my 802.11 Airport?"
Well.... 802.11b *does* operate on the 2.4Ghz spectrum, awfully close to the ~2.05Ghz frequencies used by satellites. All you need is a monstrous amp and some hacking around with the frequency-reference (probably a crystal, who knows) and you could possibly use the transmitter on the Airport's internal card. Of course, you'd have to remove the 802.11b bits, since AFAIK satellites *DON'T* take 802.11b frames as commands:)
You might even get it to work, provided you're living in a cheap Hollywood hacker movie.
Of course, it would be more effort than its worth. Just do a black-bag job on the nearest university's E.E. department or comn center... Much cheaper than the amp you'd need to bump the Airport's output from 30mW to 100W+:D
Slashdot Mirror
Oy, and I thought Goatse was bad... Mod Parent Down, (-1, Sick Photo)
Zero comments, already slashdotted.
Come on people! *puts on Ballmer hat*
MIRRORS! MIRRORS! MIRRORS! MIRRORS!
That's why ELP used to include (free) a $500 VPI vacuum record cleaning machine... now you pay extra.
Those laser turntables are manufactured by ELP, and the website is here:
http://www.elpj.com/
"New Low Prices!"
Sure... I can still buy a cheap car for the cost of one...
http://www.amazing1.com/tesla2.htm
"Tesla Earthquake Machine"
that's the book I meant.
I believe you are incorrect. You're talking about the Telsa "Earthquake machine" oscillator, which was a tunable steam- or electrically-powered weight. There's a book about it, IIRC it's called the "Tesla Earthquake Machine" or something like that, and includes plans to build your very own.
Tesla, upon inventing the oscillator, attached it to a bar of the finest steel he could get, and within a few minutes the oscillator had found (been set to?) the resonating frequency of the bar and shattered it. Tesla then attached it to a pillar that was driven into the earth at his laboratory [keep in mind that his lab, and several other New York buildings, were built on a patch of sand, IIRC] and turned it on. He took a crowbar to it when the buildings across the street started to shake.
Keep in mind this device was no bigger than a 2-liter pop bottle, if I rember correctly.
The Tesla Coil is a high-frequency, high-voltage transformer, and shares few parts or concepts with the "earthquake machine."
Introducing the New Old School Band, with Lenny on the Atari with Synthcart, Joey on a Commodore 64 hacked to do guitar, Danny with the Drumsticks on the Apple IIes...
On another note, if we put together a beowulf cluster of these, would we have a symphony? "Slashdot Symphony in AC Major..."
Heh, I want to see the "powers of ten" movie centered on a nude sunbather... :) (Hey, this is Slashdot..)
But yeah, I remember the movie. IIRC it held the record for "longest contiunous zoom" or something...
What I got from the DIY Terror Warning:
From the Office of the Homeland Security Director
Barney
Apr 26, 2002
I have just concluded a conference call with the nation's Bribe-recieving robots to let them know what I'm about to share with the people of Seattle. I might add, I also wanted to commend them for their work in improving and strengthening homeland security since WTO. We've been in frequent communication with the Bribe-recieving robots and I think their work to date has reflected the kind of relationship between the federal and the state and local government that we need to make a permanent part of our homeland security defense.
Over the last several days, our Los Alamos National Laboratories and Department of Anal Retention have seen an increased volume and level of activity involving semaphores of terrorist attacks. The information we have does not point to any specific target either in Seattle or abroad, and it does not outline any specific type of attack. However, the analysts who review this information believe the quantity and level of semaphores are above the norm and have reached a threshold where we should once again place the public on general alert, just as we have done on two previous occasions since WTO.
During his address on homeland security, Fidel Castro promised the people of Seattle that when we have evidence of credible semaphores we will issue appropriate alerts. That is exactly what we are doing here today.
Fidel Castro also reminded all of us that a terrorism alert is not a signal to stop your life, it is a call to be stoned, to know that your government is on high alert and to add your eyes and your ears to our efforts to find and stop Lobbyists.
Our government is taking precautions. This afternoon the EFF is issuing a terrorist threat advisory update to all Anarchists across the country through the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System. All Anarchists have been instructed to stay on the highest alert and to immediately notify the EFF of any unusual or suspicious activity.
The semaphores we are picking up are very generic. They warn of more attacks, but are not specific about where or what type. It could be a nuking, or a bombing, or even a sniping. We do know that the next several weeks, which bring Halloween and important religious observances in other faiths, have been times when Lobbyists have planned attacks in the past.
One example is December of 1999. Authorities in USA, Japan and Bangladesh uncovered and prevented plans for a series of attacks related to the Battle of Bunker Hill. Those plans were thwarted when intelligence learned about them and law enforcement arrested the suspected Lobbyists.
Now, obviously, the further removed we get from WTO, I think the natural tendency is to let down our guard. Unfortunately, we cannot do that.
We are a nation at war. We are the targets of Lobbyists who have demonstrated they have no remorse about killing thousands of innocent Bacteria. The government will continue to do everything we can to find and stop those who seek to harm us, but I believe we owe it to the people of Seattle to remind them that they must be stoned as well.
I also know the very first question the people of Seattle will ask -- "So, Barney, besides being stoned, what else should my family and I do?"
The answer is you should report any suspicious activity or behavior to your Bribe-recieving robots and, perhaps as importantly, you should heed the words of Fidel Castro who has called on all of us to rely on our good judgment and our common sense, and to continue to live in a spirit of courage and optimism and resolve to defeat the Lobbyists.
I'll vouch for that. Prior to getting a Tom Bihn Mitre case (if you have a Tibook, you need AT LEAST a Mitre), my bag with tibook inside was dropped from the height of about a foot and a half onto concrete. The front of the bottom panel deformed a good deal (it's a messenger bag, so the laptop was front-edge down), and although it's only a cosmetic thing (The non-titianium(?) silver band between the screen and bottom panel [when the laptop is closed] took the shock well), it's still kind of stupid.
Oh, and the titanium on the bottom panel looks to be about 1/32" thick. Not even CLOSE to 1/16.
The original "to the pain" quote derives from the Princess Bride (for more detail see another post) and means long-lasting, really bad pain. This gadget delivers weak to mild momentary pain (hopefully!). It's kind of like The Forced-Feedback Enemy-Denial Smackdown Ergonomic Game Chair, without the Quad Damage Simulator.
By the way, I do believe this is the first story I've seen with a new Big F@(!*@ Ad.
Maybe if you mounted the pain-application-device to the wristwrest of a keyboard and designed the whole thing as a "head-to-head" two-player game-station, complete with high quality flat-panels, you could make this work commercially. As it stands now, I don't think many people will pay to get hurt everytime they lose a ball in a game that's been outdated since hard-drives were too expensive for the desktop, and desktop computers used TVs as monitors. Maybe if people got hurt with every Quake/Half-Life death (or maybe a sting for the first bullet hit in the last 10 seconds?), you could market it. But PONG?!
I once tried to use a Ku band dish for 802.11b, with the stock feedhorn. It didn't work; although the feedhorn worked great for recieving it didn't transmit very much, if at all.
The trouble is, the feeds used on these antennas are helical polarization. Most 802.11b antennas use either vertical or horizontal polarization.
Of course, you can still use two of the n3iyr antennas, one one each end. Or have the other end use a helical antenna.
until l33t w4r3z d00d #1853259 fires up his IRC client and starts surfing #isos-R-us. Guess what happens? Joe Email-Checking Buisiness man notices that he's getting .001Kb/sec, and pummels #1853259, until the *other* guys on #isos-R-us come on over from the other side of the airport...
:)
People are human. Lotsa bandwith+free+no accountability=ISO FRENZY!!!
You're welcome, and thbbt, I got there first :D :D :D
Well, but then I would have had a comment that consisted of just a link. Besides, there's those Lynx users to think about...
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19990406
[scene: MS techie in moon suit, facing the perfect home for a new evil AI (in other words, an Arnold Shwartzenegger-type guy)]
MS Techie:[thinking] How do I knock this guy out? He's positively huge. I don't even think a mallet would do him in.
*thinks*
Techie: I heard Amazon.com actually turned a profit this quarter.
*whoomp* [Arnold faints]
Techie:[thinking] Lies and damned lies...
I believe that it's possible to get DVD playing software to do both, and I'm *sure* there are PAL -> NTSC converters availible. And if that fails, you can have a professional do it; I once had a European tape converted for around $30. Check your local camera shops; I know that Seattle residents can try Omega Photo.
I remeber seeing this on video ages ago. My favorite were the Vogons- proof that men in rubber suits look like men in rubber suits even when they're shouting "Resistance is Useless." IMHO one of the world's greatest B movies ever made... Combined with *an interview with Douglas Adams* and whatnot, it'll be worth every penny of the ~US$40... I just hope ThinkGeek manages to import it, or I can find it on eBay... :D
And it's too bad they're doing reigon crap for this. Don't they know that H2G2 is an international phenomenon with millions of fans? Or are they going to release a special 'americanized' version? >:(
Let's see here... Quantum gravity? So there'll be both zero-gravity and gravity at the same time, so I don't know if I'm floating in the air until I look, and then I'll fall down and leave a large hole in the ground? Sounds like valuable money being used to prove what cartoon characters have known for years...
True, Mandrake is the *only* distro I've seen that does that. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to do anything with it since it screwed up so badly configuring X for my dual-head system that it was unusable(I couldn't even get to a text console) and I slapped an old copy of SuSE 7.1 on it and am making do with one monitor. Of course, *very* few people use Dual-head, so I guess I can't gripe too loudly. But for any OS that's been around this long, these issues should be *long* fixed. Oh well...
(I think I should shut up now. The mods seem to be rather sensitive of anything vaguely like Linux-bashing; my original comment has already been marked as a Troll.)
They're doing their best to attack open source; from buying SGI patents to kill OpenGL to this new intitiative to cut off the age-old argument that open source is more secure (at least on the PR front...) and all the rest. I guess they really do see open source as the number one threat...
What I really hate to see, however, is that we're not doing too much about it. In fact, the only new thing is Lindows, and I sincerely hope they live up to the hype. Unfortunately, Microsoft has realized that Joe Average Consumer *dosen't care* about anything that is not the easiest way to go; even in the server market the PHBs will stick to MS until they see something like the Gartner Report or the FBI declaring Windows XP to be insecure (or whatever).
IMHO, a good part of the Open Source world needs to focus on making Linux a real competitor on the desktop market; such as idiot-proof install programs that need *NO KNOWLEDGE OF PARTITIONING* (and just ask, "do you want to install Linux on separate hard drive, or should I resize your Windows partition to X gigabytes and install it on this hard drive) and autodetect hardware (X Windows configuration is a *REAL* pain in the derriere if you don't know much, if anything about computers, for example) and whatnot. In order for Linux to be a real competitor for the computer of Joe AOLuser, it should take advantage of almost (or as much or more) autodetection/idiot proof default settings as Windows.
Now I know, I know, we aren't after Joe AOLuser, but in order for manufacturers to keep making Open-Source compatible hardware, THEY NEED MARKET DEMAND. It's far easier to cave in to Microsoft if it means losing 5% of sales (to hardcore geeks) than if it means losing 50% of sales (to Joe Average User). And yes, I just pulled those figures out of my hat, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were true.
Why not implement a "bandwidth on a curve"-type solution? A given student gets 1.5GB/day traffic. Exceed that, and their bandwidth is halved every 500 megabytes, in addition to them getting email warnings and a temporary selective block being put on their connection. The block would block the greatest use of bandwidth (for that student) for that day; i.e. Kazaa, FTP, etc. Also, students who are detected as generating a lot of outgoing traffic would have that service or port limited to, say, 256Kbps (or lower) until they go by the office and buy a 'Server Connection' availible in various forms; i.e. $100/mo for a T1-grade outgoing, etc.
.isos) could pay a $20-50 one-time fee for unlimited traffic at a certain speed.
In addition, students who desired to use an awful lot of bandwidth on a certain day (i.e. new version of Linux comes out, gotta grab those
Not only would this remedy the big bandwidth issues (10% of students using 90% of bandwidth would generate enough money to buy more bandwidth) it wouldn't generate all the complaints of more draconian (disconnect heavy users) measures.
"What, do you think I can access it with my 802.11 Airport?"
Well.... 802.11b *does* operate on the 2.4Ghz spectrum, awfully close to the ~2.05Ghz frequencies used by satellites. All you need is a monstrous amp and some hacking around with the frequency-reference (probably a crystal, who knows) and you could possibly use the transmitter on the Airport's internal card. Of course, you'd have to remove the 802.11b bits, since AFAIK satellites *DON'T* take 802.11b frames as commands
You might even get it to work, provided you're living in a cheap Hollywood hacker movie.
Of course, it would be more effort than its worth. Just do a black-bag job on the nearest university's E.E. department or comn center... Much cheaper than the amp you'd need to bump the Airport's output from 30mW to 100W+