And how much are you going to pay for a magazine or newspaper if it's not supported by advertisers?
And looking at my latest Circuit Cellar, I see a full-page add for a PSoC device that looks pretty cool, and that I wouldn't have known about otherwise. And 'going to the store' to browse for this sort of thing is pretty much out of the question.
Now, if I could replace every feminine hygene ad I see with one for an embedded device C compiler, PC-based oscilloscope, or something else that actually interests me, that'd be great.
Hey, not true. The government does manage to keep some secrets. I work on a military base, and I happen to know that no one's leaked info about the Podkletnov effect antigravity engines the Air Force has been developing.
The USPS will actually put up with much stranger stuff than that. Check out this article for some good-natured abuse of the postal service.
Coconuts are OK. Bricks make the post office think you're mailing drugs. Dead fish, old seaweed, and rancid cheese will make it through, but won't earn you any friends.
Very true. I've traveled abroad a bit, but I've never called internationally FROM the US. Unless you count a fax I had to send awhile back. One page to Bulgaria cost me about $10.
I had a friend stationed on the carrier USS John C Stennis. Apparently, if you don't flip the mice upside down when you're done, all of the computers in the library come out of power save mode every time they launch a plane off the catapult.
The fact that they're staying suborbital is the big difference. Still, any time you're messing with powerful rockets and huge aerodynamic stresses, it's best to take your time and check things out.
As for the claim that improvements in technology since the time the shuttle was designed have reduced processing time... well, I'm not so sure about that. I only deal with unmanned expendable vehicles, but there is a LOT that goes into getting them ready for launch. Of course, a large part of that is administrative stuff. I've heard that it takes 2 million signatures to get the shuttle off the ground, and I believe it.
SpaceshipOne may not have so much of that to worry about now, but don't worry... the bureaucrats will catch up eventually.
I'm certain they had marketing material at one point about on-board RF hardware for the HCS08's. The 'related links' section at the bottom of the MC9S08GB60 page still has a link to 'Motorola's HCS08 microcontrollers supporting the 802.15.4 ZigBee standard', though there's no explanation of what they're referring to.
If it's not on-board support, than what's different about the HCS08's versus any other MCU? Why mention it at all?
I've been waiting for ZigBee hardware from Motorola for quite a while now. Several months ago, their web site proudly proclaimed that their HCS08 series chips would support ZigBee. I'm now using HCS08 chips, but all mention of ZigBee has since vanished from the product page.
Makes me wonder if there's some not-quite-working ZigBee RF hardware on the chip...
Rockets are great, but for getting to the 'edge of space' and staying there for longer periods, balloons are a lot easier and cheaper, though they can still be pretty challenging.
Balloons are a great opportunity to experience the engineering challenges of launching, tracking, and communicating with a payload under harsh conditions without the risk of things blowing up.
I haven't built my own yet, but telemetry encoders (site down at the moment, freaking DSL) I've designed have flown on a couple of flights, and I've got a K-size cylinder of helium in the garage begging to be put to use, so it's probably only a matter of time.
Capped at 9600 bps? Hardly. Check out BayCom's USB modem - it does 78.6 kbps standard, 300 kbps max.
Plus, you can run 802.11b/g with MUCH greater power and range than unlicensed users, provided you stay within the limits of Part 97 operation.
Yeah, ragchewing is pretty lame when you've got the Internet. Never did much for me in the first place. My primary interest is in AVL, telemetry, and weather applications. The 'net doesn't do you much good when you haven't even got cell phone coverage.
Because we do a lot more searches than just the few every year that get in the news and draw in public support. There aren't a lot of people who are willing to respond to some (often bogus) callout at 2:00 AM just to sit at a trail head. Those who are willing, join the team.
I know what you're talking about. I deliberately seek out the less-traveled, undeveloped trails and primitive campsites myself for exactly this reason.
What I'm going for is as unobtrusive a system as possible - buried sensors, antennas camoflauged in trees. Less invasive than a trail sign, if possible.
Beacons aren't an option, since the target audience is those people who didn't make the most basic survival preparations to begin with.
Actually, the first time I read that, I thought you meant that YOU had detected someone falling off a 54-foot waterfall. I would imagine that would involve identifying a specific acoustic signature - something like 'aaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiii THUMP!'
Seriously dude, sounds like you could have come out of that a lot worse. I suppose I don't need to tell you this, but rocks around waterfalls, even those that are dry (at least most of the time) can be VERY slippery.
Here's a question more relevant to this topic - were there 'danger' signs, and if not, would they have made any difference?
The people I'm concerned with tracking don't bother to carry a compass or jacket. Carrying an EPIRB or PLB is out of the question.
Yes, there will be false hits, and high traffic will make it hard to spot what you're looking for. But then, if there's heavy traffic on that trail segment, chances are someone's going to find your victim before you even get the call.
Traditionally, we track people by footprints and sign - broken twigs, discarded trash, that sort of thing. It's tedious and hard to do in a heavily travelled area, but it's done all the time. An electronic timestamp serves basically the same purpose as this sort of clue, only more reliably.
Also, you often wind up commiting a lot of people to containment - posting people at trail heads to make sure the victim doesn't walk out unnoticed on their own, for example. This might help reduce the number of people required.
Very true. In this case it's the US Forest Service, for the most part. I didn't say that it'd be installed without their knowledge. That's purely a political issue.
Though it WOULD be kind of fun to make a self-logging Geocache...
We're not full-time paid rescuers, we're not big brother killjoys out to make sure you don't hurt yourselves. We're outdoors people ourselves, who have made a major commitment in terms of training and equipment so we can use our skills to help out others. This is just a matter of trying to develop another tool to provide a little more information when it comes time to do it.
I've heard of some full-time SAR teams, but they're mostly in places like Yosemite.
More often, they're all (or mostly) volunteer, run by the Sherriff's department or maybe the county fire department.
Being in decent physical shape is probably the biggest requirement. My team requires a six-month academy, with two to five days of training a month, before you start doing callouts. An EMT certification might also be required - depends on the team.
You should be prepared to spend at least two full days a month training, plus evening meetings and such. Personal equipment is generally your own responsibility, so plan on $1,000 to $2,000 of gear out of your own pocket. Again, that's for us - team standards vary.
A ham radio license is nice to have (I've got an extra class myself), especially if your team works with ARES or RACES. SAR comm is generally done over commercial/public safety frequencies when possible, though.
It's a lot of work, and often dedicated volunteers are hard to find. If you're willing to make the commitment, your local team would probably be happy to have you.
First, the cost isn't going to be a huge deal. I build telemetry transmitters, as you can see on my website (n1vg.net). A pilot program would probably be funded out of my own pocket. Any expansion beyond that would probably be from a small private grant - not taxpayer money.
I'll grant that it may be totally infeasible, considering challenges of vandalism, concealment, power, RF path, sensor accuracy, wildlife, and any number of other factors. Doesn't mean it's not worth trying.
As for the ranger thing, that's fine for some locations, but this isn't a national park. Many of the trails are only minutes outside of a sizeable city, and at most there might be a dirt parking lot at the trailhead. No ranger, no logs, and maybe not even an official trail.
I'd like to talk to you about this a bit if you don't mind. I didn't see your email address on your home page. Mine should be on my page someplace, I think.
If it weren't for people who already ignored common sense and went out without proper precautions, SAR would be a boring business.
And really, I'm not interested in MAKING people be safe. Take all the risk you want in your personal life. But when it's my job to go and FIND you, I just want to make my job easier.
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Zubenelgenubi is a double star. Which one do you mean? Assuming you're talking about the hotter one, Alpha-2, that'd be about 583.
And how much are you going to pay for a magazine or newspaper if it's not supported by advertisers?
And looking at my latest Circuit Cellar, I see a full-page add for a PSoC device that looks pretty cool, and that I wouldn't have known about otherwise. And 'going to the store' to browse for this sort of thing is pretty much out of the question.
Now, if I could replace every feminine hygene ad I see with one for an embedded device C compiler, PC-based oscilloscope, or something else that actually interests me, that'd be great.
Hey, not true. The government does manage to keep some secrets. I work on a military base, and I happen to know that no one's leaked info about the Podkletnov effect antigravity engines the Air Force has been developing.
Er, I mean... aw, crap.
Coconuts are OK. Bricks make the post office think you're mailing drugs. Dead fish, old seaweed, and rancid cheese will make it through, but won't earn you any friends.
Very true. I've traveled abroad a bit, but I've never called internationally FROM the US. Unless you count a fax I had to send awhile back. One page to Bulgaria cost me about $10.
I had a friend stationed on the carrier USS John C Stennis. Apparently, if you don't flip the mice upside down when you're done, all of the computers in the library come out of power save mode every time they launch a plane off the catapult.
Ok, since you know the grading software is going to make it into the hands of the students, here's my scheme for perfect essays:
Step 1: Feed some encyclopedia articles, Wiki pages, and other random material on your subject into a Markoff chain generator.
Step 2: Use a genetic algorithm to generate variations of the text. Fitness is determined by the grade calculated.
Step 3: Repeat step 2 until desired grade is achieved. (And, of course, Profit!)
The result is totally worthless, but at first glance would probably appear legitimate even to a human reader.
Sort of like Slashdot posts.
God damn it, where are the napkins? Someone turn off the freaking projector so I can get a napkin!
The fact that they're staying suborbital is the big difference. Still, any time you're messing with powerful rockets and huge aerodynamic stresses, it's best to take your time and check things out.
As for the claim that improvements in technology since the time the shuttle was designed have reduced processing time... well, I'm not so sure about that. I only deal with unmanned expendable vehicles, but there is a LOT that goes into getting them ready for launch. Of course, a large part of that is administrative stuff. I've heard that it takes 2 million signatures to get the shuttle off the ground, and I believe it.
SpaceshipOne may not have so much of that to worry about now, but don't worry... the bureaucrats will catch up eventually.
If it's not on-board support, than what's different about the HCS08's versus any other MCU? Why mention it at all?
I've been waiting for ZigBee hardware from Motorola for quite a while now. Several months ago, their web site proudly proclaimed that their HCS08 series chips would support ZigBee. I'm now using HCS08 chips, but all mention of ZigBee has since vanished from the product page.
Makes me wonder if there's some not-quite-working ZigBee RF hardware on the chip...
Check out Edge of Space Sciences and Arizona Near Space Research for some good examples.
Balloons are a great opportunity to experience the engineering challenges of launching, tracking, and communicating with a payload under harsh conditions without the risk of things blowing up.
I haven't built my own yet, but telemetry encoders (site down at the moment, freaking DSL) I've designed have flown on a couple of flights, and I've got a K-size cylinder of helium in the garage begging to be put to use, so it's probably only a matter of time.
Plus, you can run 802.11b/g with MUCH greater power and range than unlicensed users, provided you stay within the limits of Part 97 operation.
Yeah, ragchewing is pretty lame when you've got the Internet. Never did much for me in the first place. My primary interest is in AVL, telemetry, and weather applications. The 'net doesn't do you much good when you haven't even got cell phone coverage.
Did they haul you out in a stokes litter? With or without a wheel? I really hate those things. Riding in or tending, they're murder on the back.
Because we do a lot more searches than just the few every year that get in the news and draw in public support. There aren't a lot of people who are willing to respond to some (often bogus) callout at 2:00 AM just to sit at a trail head. Those who are willing, join the team.
I know what you're talking about. I deliberately seek out the less-traveled, undeveloped trails and primitive campsites myself for exactly this reason.
What I'm going for is as unobtrusive a system as possible - buried sensors, antennas camoflauged in trees. Less invasive than a trail sign, if possible.
Beacons aren't an option, since the target audience is those people who didn't make the most basic survival preparations to begin with.
If you fall on the seismic sensor, yes. =]
Actually, the first time I read that, I thought you meant that YOU had detected someone falling off a 54-foot waterfall. I would imagine that would involve identifying a specific acoustic signature - something like 'aaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiii THUMP!'
Seriously dude, sounds like you could have come out of that a lot worse. I suppose I don't need to tell you this, but rocks around waterfalls, even those that are dry (at least most of the time) can be VERY slippery.
Here's a question more relevant to this topic - were there 'danger' signs, and if not, would they have made any difference?
The people I'm concerned with tracking don't bother to carry a compass or jacket. Carrying an EPIRB or PLB is out of the question.
Yes, there will be false hits, and high traffic will make it hard to spot what you're looking for. But then, if there's heavy traffic on that trail segment, chances are someone's going to find your victim before you even get the call.
Traditionally, we track people by footprints and sign - broken twigs, discarded trash, that sort of thing. It's tedious and hard to do in a heavily travelled area, but it's done all the time. An electronic timestamp serves basically the same purpose as this sort of clue, only more reliably.
Also, you often wind up commiting a lot of people to containment - posting people at trail heads to make sure the victim doesn't walk out unnoticed on their own, for example. This might help reduce the number of people required.
Very true. In this case it's the US Forest Service, for the most part. I didn't say that it'd be installed without their knowledge. That's purely a political issue.
Though it WOULD be kind of fun to make a self-logging Geocache...
Thanks - at least someone here gets it.
We're not full-time paid rescuers, we're not big brother killjoys out to make sure you don't hurt yourselves. We're outdoors people ourselves, who have made a major commitment in terms of training and equipment so we can use our skills to help out others. This is just a matter of trying to develop another tool to provide a little more information when it comes time to do it.
I've heard of some full-time SAR teams, but they're mostly in places like Yosemite.
More often, they're all (or mostly) volunteer, run by the Sherriff's department or maybe the county fire department.
Being in decent physical shape is probably the biggest requirement. My team requires a six-month academy, with two to five days of training a month, before you start doing callouts. An EMT certification might also be required - depends on the team.
You should be prepared to spend at least two full days a month training, plus evening meetings and such. Personal equipment is generally your own responsibility, so plan on $1,000 to $2,000 of gear out of your own pocket. Again, that's for us - team standards vary.
A ham radio license is nice to have (I've got an extra class myself), especially if your team works with ARES or RACES. SAR comm is generally done over commercial/public safety frequencies when possible, though.
It's a lot of work, and often dedicated volunteers are hard to find. If you're willing to make the commitment, your local team would probably be happy to have you.
First, the cost isn't going to be a huge deal. I build telemetry transmitters, as you can see on my website (n1vg.net). A pilot program would probably be funded out of my own pocket. Any expansion beyond that would probably be from a small private grant - not taxpayer money.
I'll grant that it may be totally infeasible, considering challenges of vandalism, concealment, power, RF path, sensor accuracy, wildlife, and any number of other factors. Doesn't mean it's not worth trying.
As for the ranger thing, that's fine for some locations, but this isn't a national park. Many of the trails are only minutes outside of a sizeable city, and at most there might be a dirt parking lot at the trailhead. No ranger, no logs, and maybe not even an official trail.
I'd like to talk to you about this a bit if you don't mind. I didn't see your email address on your home page. Mine should be on my page someplace, I think.
Thanks...
Trail head logs are awesome, when they're there and when they're used. They at least give you an accurate last-known-point.
Some people even leave a trail map on their dash board with the time of departure noted and their intended course highlighted.
These aren't the people this system is conceived to help.
If it weren't for people who already ignored common sense and went out without proper precautions, SAR would be a boring business.
And really, I'm not interested in MAKING people be safe. Take all the risk you want in your personal life. But when it's my job to go and FIND you, I just want to make my job easier.