I currently drive a toyota corolla 2001. This model incorprates a photo sensor that kicks on the night driving lights a little before dusk and off when it's a little after dawn and on when it's really dark and stormy. I never have to turn on my headlights. But what I hate is having to freaking adjust the dashboard illumination. Driving at dusk into the sun you need the dashboard lit a little brighter, but as it gets darker you dont need as much dashboard lighting.
I would also like the dashboard lighting to kick on full brightness when parked or when the doors open and interior lights come on.
Something else I have been thinking about is a technology I saw in pop sci magazine about the sunroofs with built in lcd for automatically shading. Well I think it would be neat to incorprate that into the windshield and side windows with adjustable darkness and adjustable blocking size. This also should shut off at dark. I would also like to have the same tinting done for the rear window.
I wonder if they could get lcd to reflect like those mirror tints, that would be very nice for when the car is parked in the lot under the hot sun, shut off the car set the alarm and all windows go solid chrome! Muahhah! Even cooler, add user definable logos! Mine would be a dragon across all windows:P Anyone for a screensave type option? That would really make the locals go ga ga.
I have a project battery sealed lead acid battery i bought from radio shack. You can use a 12 volt charger for it from the same shop. The thing about lead acid batteries, you can charge them any time you want unlike nicads alkies and such. Your only worry is overcharging to the point of overheating causes leakage and leaving uncharged for too long will cause crystals to build up on the terminal rods.
The battery I own is simply a 5Ah battery I use it to test 12 volt dc lighting before I incorprate them into my car as well as for emergency lighting . One bright neon will light a room or porch just fine and if you choose the right colors, it wont attract bugs.
Anyways to get along, i would suggest getting 2 of these batteries or look at lawn mower batteries although some larger batteries dont nessecarily have larger run time but have higher amperage for cranking power. Watch your Ah ratings. If i remember things correctly a 4 Ah battery will last 4 hours with a continuous 1 amp draw (typical alarm circut backup battery) and will last longer with less than amp draw.
Btw, I would advise using a fuse to protect your gear. One lose wire can cause a lot of heat really quick! If you create a wire harness be sure the side for the power source (the battery side) is a female acceptor type plug to protect the terminals within the plug from connecting with any old piece of metal thereby causing a short during travel and a subsequent boom or fire.
the.net messenger, wap portal is just for the web access on the phone. You cant reach billing through that login. You have a separate location, login/password for billing. FYI, You can still get to a yahoo messenger.
Go ahead and get it, I started playing around with the odd couple and added some calendar stuff to the msn calendar and found i could have stuff smsed to my cell and if I set it, i could have my cell smsed if i get a hotmail message from someone in my contacts or all messages or none. On the calendar side, you can set up a hunt deal where if a alarm goes off, if you are on your msn im, it msgs you there, if not it drops to email. or sms your cell.
The calendar MSN has can import palm calendar databases, which is more than i can say for yahoo since they switched apps. Yahoo used to import, but now they created a sync application and require you to download the app and install it. You use it in place of your usual hotsync application. They forgot something tho, some of us use USB cables. Yahoo gets the finger for that.
Which remote organization suite is better? I still say I like Yahoo. Yahoo wrote their own messenger client for use under linux. It works very close to the windows counterpart. If a alarm goes off on the calendar I get a message. If I receive new email, it messages me. A few other alerts are available through the client for stocks and other things I have no use for. Msn on the other hand, im left using the only client i can find that is stable on linux ccmsn. Totally featureless. MSN fails miserably by not having a linux client. They need to get their head out of their ass and wake up before it's their funeral.
DRACO-
Stifled innovation is sometimes profitable
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Bad MEN Of Wireless
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A friend of mine insists that if he ever comes up with some great product that will endanger another big corp's profits, he says he will go to the corp and ask to be bought off to hold out with his new technology/product for X amount of years for Y amount of money.
I think it's an interesting idea, but it sucks for the consumers not to be able to use better stuff
If you have a printer that connects directly to ethernet (or it's brotheren thinnet), what I would recommend doing is set up a second network with a linux box that has 2 nics (or more).
Use the Linux box as a ssh tunnel/gateway. On the workstation side all printing traffic will be ssh tunnled, on the other side where the printers reside in your awesome printer room. Use a managed hub that has mac addresses of the printers locked down and disallow any traffic from anything else.
OR... add a nic to the linux box for every printer and lock down the mac addresses of the printers there.
Something fishy happens all secure printing jobs get broke off and new prints get sent to the printers "Printer Security Alarm" as well as a message to your favoriate Pager or SMS to your cell.
What I would do is simply ask that they take a look at those cameras views. To me I cannot see what the big deal is, The detail level in the camera views, you cannot even see a small poodle dog if it was hung from the window by his collar. You should ask them if they intend upon dancing naked on their rooftops.
If they really have a problem with the cameras, get a smoked dome or even better a mirror (blind the bastards that try to see where the camera is pointed) or point out the fact that you are not being incedulous by using a smoked or mirror dome to disguise the fact the camera is pointed skyward and not pointed through their bathroom window at the mirror which catches the reflection of a large picture of great aunt martha which also reflects a few of the neighbor's little johnny wacking off on the toilet.
Your neighbors have watched too much CSI or The agency and saw too many times where "MOVIE PHOTOSHOP" was capable of pulling a relfection of a face out of the reflection of a black wall off a pair of sunglasses. It simply isnt done with color cameras, the resolution is just way too low. Hell you couldnt even get your camera to totally fill up my 600x480 laptop screen much less blow away the res my friend's photoshop studio screens. You can possibly do it with very ultra hi-res black and white models like what is used on the sattlites of your favorite goverments at http://terraserver.microsoft.com/
I suggest you find a view of their home at terraserver and tell them to attack the goverment first, as they show their whole roof, and all of their yard.
I want my pda to instead of have alarms that just chirp or whatever, I want the damned thing to say aloud what I need to do. I also want the thing only to say the alarm message after i have pressed a button which would be at the top. I want to be able to program alarms via voice. I would love bluetooth enabled pda and cell, have the pda dial the number on the cell, be able to do the internet over cell that way too.
What Im thinking of writing is a database system which will sweep through all my mp3's cataloging anything new. I also want to add a little app that I can have running that will allow me to add to the database what I think of each song. As it is I have my xmms set up to dump the name of a song to ~/mp3 and the path/filename of the song to ~/mp3filename. All I will need is to have the app pickup the ~/mp3filename contents and take it along with my comments about the song to the database. I also think a little app, maybe connected to the previous that will generate a playlist for xmms based on the type of songs I want to hear. I typically catagorize my cds this way in my cd cases. I have Christian-ROCK Christian-underground Christian-boring Christian-i bought it at a concert and found out i didnt like it.. ROCK, POP, MIX, soundtracks, soundtracks that didnt end up in the movie itself. I also sort of know the cds i want to listen to by the type of mood they induce, Mellow(like Olive), Racy(Linkin park), Feel like singing with it(like redhot chilli peppers or creed). I want my database apps to be able to pull those files attribuited like that out for times when I feel like whatever.
DRACO-
I work with a virus removal group on the undernet that works from the channel #dmsetup. We often locate new stuff all the time. Below Im pasting all my links I usually give out to users. Included are keepers of the gates of hell (stuff you use before you get infected.) and some stuff that gets out out of hell (what you use after your girlfriend opened that attachment)
They do insist that you not work over 40 hours... no overtime! If you run out of time, you go home, leave it to some other drone if possible, or just leave it. If my boss asks me to stay, I stay on the clock, no clocking out. If I need more hours, or if i need to work overtime, I have to ask about it. If I end up on overtime without asking, they will gripe. But during some parts of the year, overtime is not a problem (Christmas, special holidays where, you get paid o/t anyways and special circumstances, everyone calls in dead but you).
It has been posted at our timeclocks that it is walmart policy not to allow associates to work off the clock. We are allotted a 30 min lunch and 1 15 min break (on the clock break, lunch off the clock) if we work less than 6 hours that day. We are allotted 1 hour lunch and 2 15 min breaks (on the clock breaks, lunch off the clock). I dont get my breaks that often. Im usually too busy to have time to do so, or I have too many dumb cashiers working with me that I cant leave as I am the department brain for the day.
I currently work at a Walmart. I am that guy that everyone calls for. In our store our electronics employees have to cover more than just electronics. We end up covering for electonics, domestics, toys, stationary, furniture, carryouts, code 7 (carts, and loading customer cars), maintenance, assembly (putting together stock to make a display such as a chair/desk/tv display), Customer Service, Layway, Stocking, freight unloading. I end up covering a lot of areas, usually 3 areas at one time.
A day I only cover electronics is a day the mangers are all in. Furniture at my store only has one employee, the department manager. On weekends all department managers are off. When he is gone, electonics guys end up hauling out those 100lb to 200lb desks, tv centers to customers cars. Im always fighting large boxes of furniture, 31 to 35 inch tvs by myself, a 5ft 10in average build guy.
I have customers griping and wheezing over out of stock inventory in furniture when i have my own problems in electronics. There is just no way to make an object just appear out of nowhere. The day they create the transporter like in star trek, will be the day my job gets easy.
I can attest to the gripy walmart employee thing. There are a lot of bad tempered people at walmart. It is all in the tone of how things are said. The other day we had one person working maintence cuz everyone else called in sick. I called twice for maint to come mop an area in electronics cuz some dolt let their kids spill their gooey milkshake all over the floor in front of the game display cabinets. The guy showed up griping that it's just him. We lightened the tension by joking that we made the mess just for him. He realized he didnt need to be mad at us and joked back with us. He came back by a few times offering more jokes.
What turns me the most sour are the customers that belive there is no riff raff in our stores, who are appauled by the thought that there might be theives in the stores. It's a mind job on many of them to see our security guys catch someone and send them off with the local cops. In the past month my department has had a 27 inch tv stolen through automotive and 3 large stereos have turned up missing. We had one lady try to return a computer which came straight from electronics and had not been sold. Our store manager has declared an act of war against theft. Our department is having a meeting on monday at 6 am about security and other things. I told some managers that we need someone in furniture or an extra hand in electronics to help cover furniture. I think that's where our security is broken.
I dog customers around electronics at times, asking them if they need anything and watch for suspicous activities. But as soon as I have to carry something out, that's one less person to watch customers around the floor.
I tracked one guy all the way to automotive where he opened up some seat covers and shoved some cds in. The guy was setting up to buy the seat covers filled with a bunch of cds. I picked up the box after he went back for more cds, and ended up pissing the group off, they left the store empty handed and dignity broken. I also heard a report of one customer, an older guy, who bought a garden hose in a box, and got it home and found it full of cds. He returned the cds telling the shocking story.
Somedays the best of us get grumpy. When I get upset I go find some boring repeatable task to do. Many other associates dont have that freedom to find another task to do. Some are assigned specific tasks and have absoloutely nothing else they can do.
I have had my outs with a few associates. One griped me out for not being at the register. She says "Get in there, You know where you are supposed to be!" Im like, it's not where Im supposed to be. Im sales floor associate. I have no buisness staying at an empty register. The management decided to install a new rule. That there be a casher at those registers after 9 pm till morning. Well someone forgot to tell us about it. I responded to her with "Excuse me?" She then said "You are supposed to be at your regsiter now get in there." I was so floored by having a stocker tell me what to do. That stocker no longer works in my area. We made sure of that. We complained to management and she wasnt to return to our area again. She thought she was the boss premo. She has some stature of being on the safety team. It makes her think she has some manageral weight to throw around. She has absolutly no buisness working at walmart. She just stays because no one has the balls to fire her ass, or tell her off about her aditude.
One of the rules that is supposed to be enforced is, every associate wear a weight belt when lifting. Lifting large objects, or simply running a register, lifting the usual small products, you are supposed to wear that belt. This woman gets it in her craw that she has to write someone up every day about not having their belt. She goes around and asking associates if they have their belt on. She accused one of my co workers of not having her belt on, the girl pulls up her shirt to show the witch she has her belt on under her shirt. The witch once almost bothered me about a belt, which I had on under my vest. I gave her a daggered stare and she backed off before finishing off her question "DO YOU HAV..." She knows not to bother me. Ill call management down on her, and management is just looking for a good deep reason to get rid of her.
I agree, I have a cordless optical mouse from logitech, but my batteries have lasted me over 2 and 1/2 months, Dec-feb. I havent changed them yet, they are the originals too!:P
But then again, Im using linux, and not mousing so much.
A play once dvd priced at $5.88 or just a buck would severely break a store. Customers wont know the difference from the play once dvd's or the standard dvds. They will see that cheap price for say, Fast and the furious and nab it before someone else does. Then when they get home the kids will spark up the dvd player while mom is in the kitchen cooking. Mom calls the kids for dinner and the kids stop the dvd player and have dinner. The family retires back to the living room and starts the dvd from the beginning only to find mom is not going to see any of it because the dvd has alredy burned off it's boot sector.
You will turn up with upset customers, fast.
I work at a walmart in the nortwest houston area. I can vouch for the fact that customers are not very quick at understanding things much less take the time to read anything. All they see is a Price, and an object they want. A while back we were stocking Jarassic part 3 in dvd. One full screen, one wide screen. Most customers dont have a clue there a difference and have a problem with the wide screen letter box format. Most of them come back and ask about full screen. They didnt see a little sliver of text at the bottom of the dvd that said wide screen.
Customers arent very bright when they come in stores. They will plow through water on the floor, spilled legos, anything. They never see signs higher than 6 foot, (never can find the 2 signs in the store both with 3 ft letters saying restrooms).
Customers seem to check their brains at the door and dont understand what Out of stock means and ask, "well, what does that mean?" Out of stock means out of stock, there is not a magic hat we can pull a 19 inch tv out of and if you ask me again Im going to scream!
These things are going to be bad stuff. Just think, they might write games to these discs. Then we will have a war on our hands.
DRACO-
Geez this technology is a little dated.
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Gez this technology is a little dated.. I remember back in high school having discussions in Pshycology-AP (1997) about this activity with paralized humans. They simply cut into the brain, grew the ends of a neron into a short tube with an electrode at the end. The user then had to be taught to try to move the pointer.
They didnt get too much out of it. Simply got movement. No real control was achived as of that time.
I guess this is newsworthy as it is now a chimp controling the mouse pointer. I wonder when Microsoft is going to hire the chimp to redesign their next OS user interface, call it Windows CHIMP.
DRACO-
I just bought next month's issue of Popular Mechanics, and in one of the articles under Technology titled "RVs Get Wired" they had a little speil about a TracNet Sattlite Internet by KVH industries. The article states the downlink is by sat and the uplink is by cell modem at 14.4Kbps or satellite modem at 9600 bps. Cost is $5995 not including the sat which is another $2999. Base usage fee is $75/mo plus 99 cents/min while conneted. After 900 min charge drops to 79 cents. This sat can also tune into tv broadcasts, but you cant watch tv and surf at the same time.. sats are too far apart. The setup requires having a server which while the sat is locked in on the internet satt, it will download certain websites as a local cache which can be viewed while watching tv.
Not the prefect deal, but the system is good for on the move.
Another system mentioned was stationary only. It was MotoSat. 400kbps down 128kbps up. Designed with gps to find it's own sats by itself and lock in. Raises to 42in high for sat lock.. folds down to 10 inches for ride.. This sat can tune into the internet sat and the tv sat at the same time, allowing you to watch your favorite scifi's using direct tv or dish sattlite network's gear (bring your own reciver deal tho). Cost? $4995 for the hardware. $79/mo unlimited usage.
Sattlite as little lag, but who would notice if they havent ever surfed broadband? They wont be able to frag, but who said you couldnt schedule local lan frags?
I remember waaaaaaaay back when windows 95 was already out and 98 was in the works, Microsoft set up a little bus with about 8 desks, monitors and tower computers and networked them all together and seemed to have a main server in the back with a generator running. The system wasnt internet connected, just had advertizements and demos of games and other software they were proporting. The bus came to houston during one of the Hal-pc general meetings. I probably spent an hour or two playing around with those pcs. They altered the registry to disable access to everything but the programs folder under start menu.
I would say the mini school bus does have a certain appeal as they are a wider vehicle, but they are also a higher platform and are usually hard to get on for the elderly or very young. I would suggest building it out of a 5th wheel trailer or camper. They can be very well stablized and with a 5th wheel you can store the gear in the over bed area. Some campers have electric flyouts that might afford more room while in use, but require leveling of the trailer before use (drive on blocks, jacking up). Another thought about a 5th wheel is, you have engine failover, if the truck you are using is troubled, you could easily get another one rather than taking the whole damned rig to the shop, putting it into the hands of mechanics who might just play with those computers sitting the back if it was a motorhome.
On weekdays i tend to sleep anywhere between 7 and 4 hours. On weekends ill stay up really late till about 3, 4 or 6 am.. then crash for 10 to 12 hours. The next day ill sleep for 8 hours and be rested. Only thing about sleeping 4 hours a night weekdays is, usually about wednesday I come home and fall asleep for an hour or 2 after work. I have missed joining a radio show-irc chat a few times because of that.
Some things i have noticed about sleep is, if you seem to be oversleeping the alarm clock, or needing naps, or feeling the need to go to bed early, you probably are getting sick or are already sick. Back when i broke my leg in high school, i would get 8 hours of sleep a night and fall asleep during the first 2 classes and also come home and sleep 2 to 4 hours for a total of 10 to 12 hours a day.
I have also noticed when my wisdom teeth are on the move i tend to sleep more. No, I dont have the time or the money to get them taken out, and I do have enough room. Bad headaches and migranes will put me into a long sleep as well.
I have stayed up over a period of 3 days/2 nights. It's tough to do, but programming gets interesting sometimes when you are no longer thinking on a single track.
You may want to see what people thought about this same subject back on August 4 when MySmart was first posted. Any Alternative Uses For The MySmart Pad? posted
by timothy on Sat August 04, 08:11 AM.
DRACO-
Think bigger.. Get one of those av carts or mail carts around the office.. and replace the wheels, add the cam, spare laptop... and anything else you want.
It doesnt have to go fast.. just needs plunty of power, besides what kind of refresh rate do you expect from the cam?
Just think... throw a tv up on there.. design some kind of arm thing to hold the camera and manipulate... and run it around the office playing I spy..
Even cooler idea for the remote cart... those interesting buisness meetings... Drive the cart into the boardroom and then display your presentations from it.
After you have figured out how to get the control down, discovered what problems you had, and what other implementations you would need to miniturize the operation.. then, and only then you can even try putting that crap on a rc car...
BTW... I dont think you could control my rc monster truck via WIFI.. the thing can go 30mph and uses nitros for fuel.. I love doing donuts on outdoor basketball courts.
Just hit control alt f2 and you will get a console login prompt in full ascii glory.
To get back to X hit control alt f7 or alt f7 (it may be higher depending on the number of console terminals you have set up on your server)
It really pays to learn linux from the console up.. I spent 2 months in console mode before I went graphical. A lot of it had to do with a crappy video card tho.. i bought a tnt riva 2 card and everything is all pretty:P
Hit them with this idea. Get them to install your own line to the internet. If they say the costs are too prohivitive then tell them to allow you to get network access. They probably have an extra t1 around anyways.. they could probably just drop you a line to the linux lab.. and have you be the network admin for the linux lab.
I would also suggest making a gateway server or requesting them to give you a router to lock down offending ports. (good for shutting down port 80 during lectures)
Slashdot Mirror
I currently drive a toyota corolla 2001. This model incorprates a photo sensor that kicks on the night driving lights a little before dusk and off when it's a little after dawn and on when it's really dark and stormy. I never have to turn on my headlights. But what I hate is having to freaking adjust the dashboard illumination. Driving at dusk into the sun you need the dashboard lit a little brighter, but as it gets darker you dont need as much dashboard lighting.
:P Anyone for a screensave type option? That would really make the locals go ga ga.
I would also like the dashboard lighting to kick on full brightness when parked or when the doors open and interior lights come on.
Something else I have been thinking about is a technology I saw in pop sci magazine about the sunroofs with built in lcd for automatically shading. Well I think it would be neat to incorprate that into the windshield and side windows with adjustable darkness and adjustable blocking size. This also should shut off at dark.
I would also like to have the same tinting done for the rear window.
I wonder if they could get lcd to reflect like those mirror tints, that would be very nice for when the car is parked in the lot under the hot sun, shut off the car set the alarm and all windows go solid chrome! Muahhah! Even cooler, add user definable logos! Mine would be a dragon across all windows
DRACO-
I have a project battery sealed lead acid battery i bought from radio shack. You can use a 12 volt charger for it from the same shop. The thing about lead acid batteries, you can charge them any time you want unlike nicads alkies and such. Your only worry is overcharging to the point of overheating causes leakage and leaving uncharged for too long will cause crystals to build up on the terminal rods.
The battery I own is simply a 5Ah battery I use it to test 12 volt dc lighting before I incorprate them into my car as well as for emergency lighting . One bright neon will light a room or porch just fine and if you choose the right colors, it wont attract bugs.
Anyways to get along, i would suggest getting 2 of these batteries or look at lawn mower batteries although some larger batteries dont nessecarily have larger run time but have higher amperage for cranking power. Watch your Ah ratings. If i remember things correctly a 4 Ah battery will last 4 hours with a continuous 1 amp draw (typical alarm circut backup battery) and will last longer with less than amp draw.
Btw, I would advise using a fuse to protect your gear. One lose wire can cause a lot of heat really quick! If you create a wire harness be sure the side for the power source (the battery side) is a female acceptor type plug to protect the terminals within the plug from connecting with any old piece of metal thereby causing a short during travel and a subsequent boom or fire.
DRACO-
the .net messenger, wap portal is just for the web access on the phone. You cant reach billing through that login. You have a separate location, login/password for billing. FYI, You can still get to a yahoo messenger.
Go ahead and get it, I started playing around with the odd couple and added some calendar stuff to the msn calendar and found i could have stuff smsed to my cell and if I set it, i could have my cell smsed if i get a hotmail message from someone in my contacts or all messages or none. On the calendar side, you can set up a hunt deal where if a alarm goes off, if you are on your msn im, it msgs you there, if not it drops to email. or sms your cell.
The calendar MSN has can import palm calendar databases, which is more than i can say for yahoo since they switched apps. Yahoo used to import, but now they created a sync application and require you to download the app and install it. You use it in place of your usual hotsync application. They forgot something tho, some of us use USB cables. Yahoo gets the finger for that.
Which remote organization suite is better? I still say I like Yahoo. Yahoo wrote their own messenger client for use under linux. It works very close to the windows counterpart. If a alarm goes off on the calendar I get a message. If I receive new email, it messages me. A few other alerts are available through the client for stocks and other things I have no use for. Msn on the other hand, im left using the only client i can find that is stable on linux ccmsn. Totally featureless. MSN fails miserably by not having a linux client. They need to get their head out of their ass and wake up before it's their funeral.
DRACO-
A friend of mine insists that if he ever comes up with some great product that will endanger another big corp's profits, he says he will go to the corp and ask to be bought off to hold out with his new technology/product for X amount of years for Y amount of money.
I think it's an interesting idea, but it sucks for the consumers not to be able to use better stuff
DRACO-
www.neopets.com
Pretty geeky.. and you never have to leave the pc
DRACO-
If you have been on the internet for long enough to remember.. Gopher://
DRACO-
If you have a printer that connects directly to ethernet (or it's brotheren thinnet), what I would recommend doing is set up a second network with a linux box that has 2 nics (or more).
Use the Linux box as a ssh tunnel/gateway. On the workstation side all printing traffic will be ssh tunnled, on the other side where the printers reside in your awesome printer room. Use a managed hub that has mac addresses of the printers locked down and disallow any traffic from anything else.
OR... add a nic to the linux box for every printer and lock down the mac addresses of the printers there.
Something fishy happens all secure printing jobs get broke off and new prints get sent to the printers "Printer Security Alarm" as well as a message to your favoriate Pager or SMS to your cell.
DRACO-
What I would do is simply ask that they take a look at those cameras views. To me I cannot see what the big deal is, The detail level in the camera views, you cannot even see a small poodle dog if it was hung from the window by his collar. You should ask them if they intend upon dancing naked on their rooftops.
If they really have a problem with the cameras, get a smoked dome or even better a mirror (blind the bastards that try to see where the camera is pointed) or point out the fact that you are not being incedulous by using a smoked or mirror dome to disguise the fact the camera is pointed skyward and not pointed through their bathroom window at the mirror which catches the reflection of a large picture of great aunt martha which also reflects a few of the neighbor's little johnny wacking off on the toilet.
Your neighbors have watched too much CSI or The agency and saw too many times where "MOVIE PHOTOSHOP" was capable of pulling a relfection of a face out of the reflection of a black wall off a pair of sunglasses. It simply isnt done with color cameras, the resolution is just way too low. Hell you couldnt even get your camera to totally fill up my 600x480 laptop screen much less blow away the res my friend's photoshop studio screens. You can possibly do it with very ultra hi-res black and white models like what is used on the sattlites of your favorite goverments at http://terraserver.microsoft.com/
I suggest you find a view of their home at terraserver and tell them to attack the goverment first, as they show their whole roof, and all of their yard.
DRACO-
I want my pda to instead of have alarms that just chirp or whatever, I want the damned thing to say aloud what I need to do. I also want the thing only to say the alarm message after i have pressed a button which would be at the top. I want to be able to program alarms via voice. I would love bluetooth enabled pda and cell, have the pda dial the number on the cell, be able to do the internet over cell that way too.
DRACO-
You should look at symbol data collection equipment.. they even have some pda form factors that have thermal printers and CCD barecode scanners
DRACO-
What Im thinking of writing is a database system which will sweep through all my mp3's cataloging anything new. I also want to add a little app that I can have running that will allow me to add to the database what I think of each song. As it is I have my xmms set up to dump the name of a song to ~/mp3 and the path/filename of the song to ~/mp3filename. All I will need is to have the app pickup the ~/mp3filename contents and take it along with my comments about the song to the database. I also think a little app, maybe connected to the previous that will generate a playlist for xmms based on the type of songs I want to hear. I typically catagorize my cds this way in my cd cases. I have Christian-ROCK Christian-underground Christian-boring Christian-i bought it at a concert and found out i didnt like it.. ROCK, POP, MIX, soundtracks, soundtracks that didnt end up in the movie itself. I also sort of know the cds i want to listen to by the type of mood they induce, Mellow(like Olive), Racy(Linkin park), Feel like singing with it(like redhot chilli peppers or creed). I want my database apps to be able to pull those files attribuited like that out for times when I feel like whatever. DRACO-
I work with a virus removal group on the undernet that works from the channel #dmsetup. We often locate new stuff all the time. Below Im pasting all my links I usually give out to users. Included are keepers of the gates of hell (stuff you use before you get infected.) and some stuff that gets out out of hell (what you use after your girlfriend opened that attachment)
Cleaners and virus scanner suites
Housecall online antivirus scanner
PC-Cillin virus scanner suite
Central command Virus Scanner Suite
Puppet's Cleaner
Puppet's Cleaner Alternate Site
Mcafee virus removal suite
Norton Antivirus, virus removal suite
Frisk software's f-prot antivirus suite for windows dos and linux
Firewall software
Zone Alarm Firewall
Conseal Firewall
Various tools used to get out of hell or figure out what hell you are in.
Boot disk images
Dmsetup.org
Common port usage/abuses
NOT AT MY STORE!
They do insist that you not work over 40 hours... no overtime! If you run out of time, you go home, leave it to some other drone if possible, or just leave it. If my boss asks me to stay, I stay on the clock, no clocking out. If I need more hours, or if i need to work overtime, I have to ask about it. If I end up on overtime without asking, they will gripe. But during some parts of the year, overtime is not a problem (Christmas, special holidays where, you get paid o/t anyways and special circumstances, everyone calls in dead but you).
It has been posted at our timeclocks that it is walmart policy not to allow associates to work off the clock. We are allotted a 30 min lunch and 1 15 min break (on the clock break, lunch off the clock) if we work less than 6 hours that day. We are allotted 1 hour lunch and 2 15 min breaks (on the clock breaks, lunch off the clock). I dont get my breaks that often. Im usually too busy to have time to do so, or I have too many dumb cashiers working with me that I cant leave as I am the department brain for the day.
DRACO-
I currently work at a Walmart. I am that guy that everyone calls for. In our store our electronics employees have to cover more than just electronics. We end up covering for electonics, domestics, toys, stationary, furniture, carryouts, code 7 (carts, and loading customer cars), maintenance, assembly (putting together stock to make a display such as a chair/desk/tv display), Customer Service, Layway, Stocking, freight unloading. I end up covering a lot of areas, usually 3 areas at one time.
A day I only cover electronics is a day the mangers are all in. Furniture at my store only has one employee, the department manager. On weekends all department managers are off. When he is gone, electonics guys end up hauling out those 100lb to 200lb desks, tv centers to customers cars. Im always fighting large boxes of furniture, 31 to 35 inch tvs by myself, a 5ft 10in average build guy.
I have customers griping and wheezing over out of stock inventory in furniture when i have my own problems in electronics. There is just no way to make an object just appear out of nowhere. The day they create the transporter like in star trek, will be the day my job gets easy.
I can attest to the gripy walmart employee thing. There are a lot of bad tempered people at walmart. It is all in the tone of how things are said. The other day we had one person working maintence cuz everyone else called in sick. I called twice for maint to come mop an area in electronics cuz some dolt let their kids spill their gooey milkshake all over the floor in front of the game display cabinets. The guy showed up griping that it's just him. We lightened the tension by joking that we made the mess just for him. He realized he didnt need to be mad at us and joked back with us. He came back by a few times offering more jokes.
What turns me the most sour are the customers that belive there is no riff raff in our stores, who are appauled by the thought that there might be theives in the stores. It's a mind job on many of them to see our security guys catch someone and send them off with the local cops. In the past month my department has had a 27 inch tv stolen through automotive and 3 large stereos have turned up missing. We had one lady try to return a computer which came straight from electronics and had not been sold. Our store manager has declared an act of war against theft. Our department is having a meeting on monday at 6 am about security and other things. I told some managers that we need someone in furniture or an extra hand in electronics to help cover furniture. I think that's where our security is broken.
I dog customers around electronics at times, asking them if they need anything and watch for suspicous activities. But as soon as I have to carry something out, that's one less person to watch customers around the floor.
I tracked one guy all the way to automotive where he opened up some seat covers and shoved some cds in. The guy was setting up to buy the seat covers filled with a bunch of cds. I picked up the box after he went back for more cds, and ended up pissing the group off, they left the store empty handed and dignity broken. I also heard a report of one customer, an older guy, who bought a garden hose in a box, and got it home and found it full of cds. He returned the cds telling the shocking story.
Somedays the best of us get grumpy. When I get upset I go find some boring repeatable task to do. Many other associates dont have that freedom to find another task to do. Some are assigned specific tasks and have absoloutely nothing else they can do.
I have had my outs with a few associates. One griped me out for not being at the register. She says "Get in there, You know where you are supposed to be!" Im like, it's not where Im supposed to be. Im sales floor associate. I have no buisness staying at an empty register. The management decided to install a new rule. That there be a casher at those registers after 9 pm till morning. Well someone forgot to tell us about it. I responded to her with "Excuse me?" She then said "You are supposed to be at your regsiter now get in there." I was so floored by having a stocker tell me what to do. That stocker no longer works in my area. We made sure of that. We complained to management and she wasnt to return to our area again. She thought she was the boss premo. She has some stature of being on the safety team. It makes her think she has some manageral weight to throw around. She has absolutly no buisness working at walmart. She just stays because no one has the balls to fire her ass, or tell her off about her aditude.
One of the rules that is supposed to be enforced is, every associate wear a weight belt when lifting. Lifting large objects, or simply running a register, lifting the usual small products, you are supposed to wear that belt. This woman gets it in her craw that she has to write someone up every day about not having their belt. She goes around and asking associates if they have their belt on. She accused one of my co workers of not having her belt on, the girl pulls up her shirt to show the witch she has her belt on under her shirt. The witch once almost bothered me about a belt, which I had on under my vest. I gave her a daggered stare and she backed off before finishing off her question "DO YOU HAV..." She knows not to bother me. Ill call management down on her, and management is just looking for a good deep reason to get rid of her.
DRACO-
I agree, I have a cordless optical mouse from logitech, but my batteries have lasted me over 2 and 1/2 months, Dec-feb. I havent changed them yet, they are the originals too! :P
But then again, Im using linux, and not mousing so much.
DRACO-
Flip over a ms mouse, most of them are from logitech. Check compaq's mice, same...
You might even find a few mice and keyboards from lexmark, especially ibm.
DRACO-
A play once dvd priced at $5.88 or just a buck would severely break a store. Customers wont know the difference from the play once dvd's or the standard dvds. They will see that cheap price for say, Fast and the furious and nab it before someone else does. Then when they get home the kids will spark up the dvd player while mom is in the kitchen cooking. Mom calls the kids for dinner and the kids stop the dvd player and have dinner. The family retires back to the living room and starts the dvd from the beginning only to find mom is not going to see any of it because the dvd has alredy burned off it's boot sector.
You will turn up with upset customers, fast.
I work at a walmart in the nortwest houston area. I can vouch for the fact that customers are not very quick at understanding things much less take the time to read anything. All they see is a Price, and an object they want. A while back we were stocking Jarassic part 3 in dvd. One full screen, one wide screen. Most customers dont have a clue there a difference and have a problem with the wide screen letter box format. Most of them come back and ask about full screen. They didnt see a little sliver of text at the bottom of the dvd that said wide screen.
Customers arent very bright when they come in stores. They will plow through water on the floor, spilled legos, anything. They never see signs higher than 6 foot, (never can find the 2 signs in the store both with 3 ft letters saying restrooms).
Customers seem to check their brains at the door and dont understand what Out of stock means and ask, "well, what does that mean?" Out of stock means out of stock, there is not a magic hat we can pull a 19 inch tv out of and if you ask me again Im going to scream!
These things are going to be bad stuff. Just think, they might write games to these discs. Then we will have a war on our hands.
DRACO-
Gez this technology is a little dated.. I remember back in high school having discussions in Pshycology-AP (1997) about this activity with paralized humans. They simply cut into the brain, grew the ends of a neron into a short tube with an electrode at the end. The user then had to be taught to try to move the pointer.
They didnt get too much out of it. Simply got movement. No real control was achived as of that time.
I guess this is newsworthy as it is now a chimp controling the mouse pointer. I wonder when Microsoft is going to hire the chimp to redesign their next OS user interface, call it Windows CHIMP. DRACO-
I just bought next month's issue of Popular Mechanics, and in one of the articles under Technology titled "RVs Get Wired" they had a little speil about a TracNet Sattlite Internet by KVH industries. The article states the downlink is by sat and the uplink is by cell modem at 14.4Kbps or satellite modem at 9600 bps. Cost is $5995 not including the sat which is another $2999. Base usage fee is $75/mo plus 99 cents/min while conneted. After 900 min charge drops to 79 cents. This sat can also tune into tv broadcasts, but you cant watch tv and surf at the same time.. sats are too far apart. The setup requires having a server which while the sat is locked in on the internet satt, it will download certain websites as a local cache which can be viewed while watching tv.
Not the prefect deal, but the system is good for on the move.
Another system mentioned was stationary only. It was MotoSat. 400kbps down 128kbps up. Designed with gps to find it's own sats by itself and lock in. Raises to 42in high for sat lock.. folds down to 10 inches for ride.. This sat can tune into the internet sat and the tv sat at the same time, allowing you to watch your favorite scifi's using direct tv or dish sattlite network's gear (bring your own reciver deal tho). Cost? $4995 for the hardware. $79/mo unlimited usage.
Sattlite as little lag, but who would notice if they havent ever surfed broadband? They wont be able to frag, but who said you couldnt schedule local lan frags?
I remember waaaaaaaay back when windows 95 was already out and 98 was in the works, Microsoft set up a little bus with about 8 desks, monitors and tower computers and networked them all together and seemed to have a main server in the back with a generator running. The system wasnt internet connected, just had advertizements and demos of games and other software they were proporting. The bus came to houston during one of the Hal-pc general meetings. I probably spent an hour or two playing around with those pcs. They altered the registry to disable access to everything but the programs folder under start menu.
I would say the mini school bus does have a certain appeal as they are a wider vehicle, but they are also a higher platform and are usually hard to get on for the elderly or very young. I would suggest building it out of a 5th wheel trailer or camper. They can be very well stablized and with a 5th wheel you can store the gear in the over bed area. Some campers have electric flyouts that might afford more room while in use, but require leveling of the trailer before use (drive on blocks, jacking up). Another thought about a 5th wheel is, you have engine failover, if the truck you are using is troubled, you could easily get another one rather than taking the whole damned rig to the shop, putting it into the hands of mechanics who might just play with those computers sitting the back if it was a motorhome.
DRACO-
Hello Direct's headset page in their catlog
They seem to have really expanded their selection since the last time I saw it.
DRACO-
On weekdays i tend to sleep anywhere between 7 and 4 hours. On weekends ill stay up really late till about 3, 4 or 6 am.. then crash for 10 to 12 hours. The next day ill sleep for 8 hours and be rested. Only thing about sleeping 4 hours a night weekdays is, usually about wednesday I come home and fall asleep for an hour or 2 after work. I have missed joining a radio show-irc chat a few times because of that.
Some things i have noticed about sleep is, if you seem to be oversleeping the alarm clock, or needing naps, or feeling the need to go to bed early, you probably are getting sick or are already sick. Back when i broke my leg in high school, i would get 8 hours of sleep a night and fall asleep during the first 2 classes and also come home and sleep 2 to 4 hours for a total of 10 to 12 hours a day.
I have also noticed when my wisdom teeth are on the move i tend to sleep more. No, I dont have the time or the money to get them taken out, and I do have enough room. Bad headaches and migranes will put me into a long sleep as well.
I have stayed up over a period of 3 days/2 nights. It's tough to do, but programming gets interesting sometimes when you are no longer thinking on a single track.
DRACO-
You may want to see what people thought about this same subject back on August 4 when MySmart was first posted. Any Alternative Uses For The MySmart Pad? posted by timothy on Sat August 04, 08:11 AM. DRACO-
Think bigger.. Get one of those av carts or mail carts around the office.. and replace the wheels, add the cam, spare laptop... and anything else you want.
It doesnt have to go fast.. just needs plunty of power, besides what kind of refresh rate do you expect from the cam?
Just think... throw a tv up on there.. design some kind of arm thing to hold the camera and manipulate... and run it around the office playing I spy..
Even cooler idea for the remote cart... those interesting buisness meetings... Drive the cart into the boardroom and then display your presentations from it.
After you have figured out how to get the control down, discovered what problems you had, and what other implementations you would need to miniturize the operation.. then, and only then you can even try putting that crap on a rc car...
BTW... I dont think you could control my rc monster truck via WIFI.. the thing can go 30mph and uses nitros for fuel.. I love doing donuts on outdoor basketball courts.
DRACO-
You shutdown X?
:P
Just hit control alt f2 and you will get a console login prompt in full ascii glory.
To get back to X hit control alt f7 or alt f7 (it may be higher depending on the number of console terminals you have set up on your server)
It really pays to learn linux from the console up.. I spent 2 months in console mode before I went graphical. A lot of it had to do with a crappy video card tho.. i bought a tnt riva 2 card and everything is all pretty
DRACO-
Hit them with this idea. Get them to install your own line to the internet. If they say the costs are too prohivitive then tell them to allow you to get network access. They probably have an extra t1 around anyways.. they could probably just drop you a line to the linux lab.. and have you be the network admin for the linux lab.
I would also suggest making a gateway server or requesting them to give you a router to lock down offending ports. (good for shutting down port 80 during lectures)
DRACO-