If you are really a geek, you should know or be the geek that has a server that can handle the task. I owned a server for about a year hosting services for other people. One of my friends and customers really got into it and started his own server, then when mine got stolen (fscking uplink owner stole the cohosted box) he and I worked out some deal that I would help him keep his server running and advise him on anything new while he hosts my 2 domains 2 websites and email/reversed dns's on a few ips.
But now he has sold/joined another service provider, so now im not admin. But I get to hold what little things i have now (2 sites 3 bots 2 hosted domains and emails) till they either decide to audit and clear out users.
Surely before then, Ill have another server up again. I cant live without a little tinkering.
You neglected to mention weather this IVR is going to be a palm sized device, a laptop, a desktop, a server tower, a beowolf cluster answering telephones. Or is this going to be set up like on startrek shows, "computer do such and such" with all the appropriate beeping tones?
What the hell is the application other than "an interactive voice response (IVR) system"
Will this need to sample audio figure out what the hell people are trying to say, and then form a response? Or is it supposed to understand a command such as "AZIZ, LIGHT!" (or more appropriate "Lights please").
Please either reply with appropriate information or try submitting a fuller question next time. Otherwise you will only get halfassed answers, and by luck you might get a suggestion such as mine, to redefine your question.
Back when I was in high school, i had 3 classes that had at least one desktop per student. The way that teacher taught is by giving a lecture the first day, before any pc got booted. Her lecture explained what she expected of the students, and what kind of freedoms were alotted to them as their responsibilitys as well. She personally bought site liscences for several microsoft game packs that she allowed us to play when we completed our assignments. Our assignments would be usually 2 or 3 lessons each taking merely 5 to 15 min depending on the structure of the lesson. After work was complete we would print and turn in our assignments, then play games.
The way the place was set up.. there were 4 desks/computers/chairs to a group.. each faced in a rotated star facing clockwise of the group. Everyone can see everyone else's screens, if they wanted to. Plagerism was not tolorated. The setup was good for group moderation. (why are you playing tetris, she's giving a lesson)
Sure there were some of us that could get away with hacking each other's machines. (I did it) It did help all of the classes are advanced classes, so the goof off creeps that dont want to be anywhere near a place that you have to actually think were filtered out before schedules were made. Four of us in the class had advanced knowledge of computers, three of them being in my group, including myself... We usually finished our assignments the quickest, printed the code out and handed it in and then proceeded to cause each other trouble if they werent finished or play the teacher's games. (We would junk up the other's hard drives while they were compiling to make it take longer or make the loose print jobs.) It's fun playing god with someone else's computer.
All in all, we did ok. The teacher was able to keep a lot of control over the class with the freedoms and responsiblity phrase. She would just have to mention that and the person in the wrong thing would see and understand their fault and adjust to classroom activity.
What the hell do you need a palm pilot? Just get a data collector with keyboard interface and small screen. Enter your location, then enter floor, enter wing, enter room, (enter part of room if needed) Scan computer, scan pre printed list of usual jobs, or punch in. Continue work thru day..
Return to CENTRAL and download data from data collector.
You could speed things up if the location has a barcode, the floor listings on the elevators have a barcode and the rooms have barcodes... but we dont live in that kind of world:P
sounds like a busy pci bus.. try checking your latency timers. I get simular "scrachy" tunes when one of my hard drives spins up for the 4 am locate database rebuild. It seems the cpu isnt giving the sound card enough cycles vs my ide card.
I have one of those cd selectors.. It sucks bad... I bought one for my audio cds. It has a strange wow neato what's this effect on people that never seen it. They ask what's that.. then want to look in the box and play with accessing cd's. The next thing that happens, Im picking up the whole pile of 40+ cds the moron just dumped all over the rough concrete. I think this is how my dearly departed Losing Miss Bliss cd--local band which burned their own discs--developed that severe skip on track 4 thru 6.. I wish the person that borrowed that cd would return it.. Oh the comfort of having mp3 copies:P
The stupid boxes dont hold cd's well while the top is opened. The cd's sit in stalls that are very very small, with nothing securing them while the top is open. After the 4th idiot, I purchased a second exo 64 cd softwallet--it has a plastic outer bumper exo skeleton which helps protect it. I already owned one before i bought the cd selector and liked it quite a bit. I prefer to have my cds held securly in the pockets of these.
Finally the lamoid spammers which no one can close the hamper on will stop... or at least change their freaking repeating message i get every 3 days warning me that.biz is about to be online and i should register my domain name soon.
Im like pisssh...biz is bullshiz. I suggest everyone shy away from.biz and all buisnesses associated with registering.biz. Even better.. ignore.biz all together... and warn anyone trying to use.biz that they are not in the normal suffix search order, that anyone just typing googoo without a . will not search for gooogoo.biz except by browsers that have search engine attempts built into the search bar (a la mozilla-netscape aol)
The best (electronic) reference card is the tab key.
Dont know what to do.. hit tab twice. Bash will go thru the paths and list the programs available to be ran (set executable). From there just use man or any other help facility.
I have shocked many linux users that have been using linux longer than i have by showing them the tab-completion lists. It works for every argument.
try typing ca, then hit tab... you get a list of all executable commands with ca in them...
then try cat (a space) and tab twice, you get a list of applicable files in your current working directory.
It works great for even searching the directory tree. (really helpful while doing a lot of transversing of the directory tree)
I remember reading something in pop sci or pop mechanics about a helo with a chain net that would get dragged across mined areas to disturb the mines and cause them to blow.
I also once saw an article about some kind of tank with a plow like front end that would upturn the ground. It took care of the mines, but probably is slow work.
FP
DRACO-
i know some better sounds that can get attention
on
The Sound of Safety?
·
· Score: 2
Dog throwing up in livingroom
Cat caught in vehicle engine compartment when started. (*rewaoooow* *clunk*)
the crunching sound of breaking bones (when i broke my leg, i knew right then it was broken, and my boss didnt belive me)
the sound of a very strong glare (Yea you married guys know the sound of that glare)
For the BOFH's (you know who you are), the sound of a user's dummie mode kicking in.
Now this sound would be so scary, the sound of nothing. Imagine a device that could completely wipe out all sound, people would halt in complete disbelive and disorentation.
A good Klaxon can sure wake someone up.
The sound of all the trolls jumping from their windows at one time because they found slashdot was destination unreachable.
Re:"Impossible to drive" says the article
on
BYO Battlebot
·
· Score: 1
Those wedge bots use a trac type drive system.. left stick controls the left trac/wheel and right stick controls right trac/wheel. If you ever drive a dixon lawnmower or a bulldozer it all comes natural. Both sticks forward for going forward, both sticks back for going backwards. 360 left with right stick forward and left back, 360 right with left forward and right back. simple right turns with left stick forward and right stick slowed or off (or yanked back momentarily for braking).
The pistol grips dont provide the right control for trac/separate side driven vehicles. Pistol grips are ok for stuff that drives like a car.
Joystick controls would be ok to control either design, car or trac. For a car style with joystick design forward/rev would control for/aft movement motors and left/right would control steering. For trac style forward would activiate both tracs to go forward... back would activate both tracs to go back. and left would possibly do 360 unless you programmed the 360 movements with buttons, and had left just kick the right trac forward. ditto right. But with a trac/joystick, there could be confusion of the zones where it would stop going forward and start trying to turn. (need some programming)
If i had an unlimited supply of $ i wouldnt mind putting my traxxas nitro powered rc truck in the ring after buying all the metal replacement parts and adding a modified roll cage and add some kind of anti roll mech. My traxxas tends to roll pretty often as a cause of braking too fast or trying to turn at full speed (gotta remember star trek rules.. warp speed in straight lines, and turn on impulse speeds). I would also want to fix my reverse gear so i can repeatily ram someone (my reverse sometimes gets stuck or becomes nutral). I know this thing has a lot of weight and can pretty well ram anything. Add short peircing spike to the front and back, and start her up!
I have taken my traxxas indoors onto concrete gym floors, confusing donuts are very easy:P power slides, and brake slides on smooth concrete require skill. (I love doing that stuff while ppl are standing around gawking.. just power slide right in front of them, then come back and brake slide to a stop at their feet and blow full throttle in reverse to left or right for some awesome donuts!) Im sure playing around in one of those robot war places would be simular surface.
I currently helping administer a few freebsd servers for shell services (doing it for free in order to be able to use the servers as web space and remote database testing). Most of what im handed to do is kick around a few domains and upgrade the mail server. I also keep a check on the other admins.
Before this hobby started I was working at a truck brokerage. I kept the computers running well enough that I had a lot of extra time on my hands. Well soon enough the boss figured out im spending a lot of my time doing nothing and sent me on my way. 4 weeks later *BAMN* a thunderstorm hits.. and all the computers were still running. Network hub fried, a few network cards fried and the breaker on the ups got tripped and the breaker for the server room got tripped.
The next day they call me up early 8am (mind you i dont get up till 11 am cuz of my evening job). I ignore the answering machine and doze back off to sleep. Then I wake up at 11am and check the answering machine, the boss wants me to call him (no info about what's going on). I give him a call and he lays down what has happened, they even had some knuckle head try to fix the network but couldnt. So off I go to save their buisness life. I get there, the hub has been replaced, the network cards in 1 computer is missing the server is opened up.. i replace the nic in the server and add one to one of the workstations, reset the network addresses. I think the knucklehead wiped them out cuz he thought that they were automatically assigned, no i left it easier than that and designated ip addresses for every machine so they wouldnt have any problems if any other machine wasnt up (including the dhcp server, if i ever made one). I had their network up in less than half an hour and reinstalled windows on accounting's computer (dunno how it lost so many startup files) and reinstalled their accounting software. Fixed the printer.. and got a $400.00 check for my trouble.
(tho part of that check was considered for past payments they forgot to send me)
About the time I got the network functioning correctly and had the dispatchers database back online, one of the dispatchers asked the boss how I got it fixed so fast and that other guy couldnt get nothing done. The boss responded "Well, I guess you just have to know what you are doing..."
That pleased me plunty.
After that day I have seriously considered going and looking for another sysadmin style job. Im working retail right now, and it's not my favorite thing to do. Right now im getting my butt chewed out for catch 22's. Either i help a customer and get chewed on by management for leaving my (locked) register, or i ignore the customer that needs help and stay at the (locked) and silent register and get talked about behind my back by the customer for not helping them.
Im getting ready to tell management to fly a kite and start searching for a sysadmin job again. (i was getting paid more as a sysadmin at the truck brokerage than i am now working in retail)
I have seen some type of game gear from microsoft that allows chatter during games, i have never tested it to know if it works for your application. I have ran across them at Radio shack and walmart so im sure they arnt too obscure.
On the other hand (you hopefully have less than 6 digits), Motrola might have a buisness package set of radios that can work better than you would ever dream. If you listen to police scanners enough you may hear of cops losing radios and contacting a dispatcher to go over to the radio console and killing a radio's ability to work with the rest of the group. Also, if you work with motrola, you wont have any trouble with the FCC or buying licenses since motrolla will be the one buying the license for the spectrum you are using.
Another option from motrola is a cell phone which also operates as a radio. from what i understand the usage as a radio incuurs no charges. One of the little towns i once walked a parade in seemed to have these cells phones everywhere.. The firefighters, the Church staff (the parade got rained out and I directed my float to a large covering at a church before our float got drowned and really started floating away)
Stare at a few HAM sites, you will be blown away at some of the technology that's around already (please place a napkin over your keyboard so you dont drool on it).
DJ mixer boxes are pretty heavy and hard to carry.
The only mixer box i have even remotely liked was on caster wheels. I have also seen one at pssl.com (pro studio stage and lighting) that has large rear wheels and front casters that might be nice. But you are looking for carry type stuff.
My uncle once gave me a amstrad XT Luggable/portable (i cant say it's a laptop cuz it would need the lap of 2 1/2 ppl). Flip up full size keyboard, mono lcd screen, 2 3 1/2 floppies no hds no sound... It toted real well with a handle on the left end (it hung vertically lengthwise) but it ate battries faster than a 10000 watt flashlight. Now if someone could make something sturdier than that thing, with a kb like that and a full size backlit lcd screen, it would rock!
Another good design might be a lunchbox that carries the same way vertical longways.. maybe adding casters.
One of my wishes is for the next case design spec to include fully forced air filtered intakes, external power supply ultamately built into an ups since you already have one of those right? I think getting rid of the large power connectors for hard drives/cds ect in favor of smaller plugs like the mini 3 1/2 floppy power plug would save a good bit of space (you always need a lot of turning room for the wires to turn from the plug. I think a side power bus bar or a standardized slot like a nesting carrage would greatly improve the needed room inside a case.
All of the above power suggestions could be moot point if they start including 6 wire FIREWIRE on the motherboard. Now that would rock for space saving concerns!
Ok, problem.. most sound boards are not wired for stereo input. They are wired for balanced and unbalanced inputs. Your best bet would be to pick up one of those radio shack dj booth boards. They have stereo connects.
If all you have is a standard sound board with balanced and unbalanced inputs (3rd ring is ground not a second channel) You need to split the left and right stereo channels onto separate sound board channels and then pan them left and right appropriately. Take it from me, it sounds better than just jacking a stereo connect into an unbalanced connection (very bad signal quality that way).
Im head sound tech at a local underground (the best places to work) px rock avenue and regularly use multiple cd players, mp3 players and computers on the same boards without trouble using this method. Only a few low end boards will have stereo phono inputs on one slider. I belive it is because most professionals use large 40+ channel boards that have more room to double up with and they also use phono cable or 1/4 leads that dont have to be split with stuff from the "extra parts" drawer.
You might want to check fullcompass.com. They will send out a heafty catalog if you request it.
I would want one of these for an in car mp3 server, it's the perfect size. I have thought about looking at 1u rackmounts to put in my trunk, but this thing could sit under my seat!. I gotta wonder tho, how resistant to bumps it is.. and heat (shut off)... It would also be great for using at the concert hall i work for. Small enough to get locked away and easily portable.
Something else I have noticed with 2 stroke engines are the spark plug foulings.. At work we have a dirt bike with a 2 stroke engine(small family company.. we have a lot of fun on the weekends). The first week we had the thing we fouled out all our spare plugs and any new plug wouldnt get the damn thing started. Instead of going all the way to houston for new plugs, we went to the local orileys shop and asked for a hotter firing plug. We still foul out plugs on it but it is running. I liked the bike a little, but couldnt stand the power band hit on it.. I couldnt drive the damn thing without riding a wheelie.
I never really liked the bike much, I liked my boss's 4 wheeler Yamaha Raptor, it really kicks some ass. You can do wheelies on up to 4th gear. But this monster doesnt do any good for driving slow, towing or really rough wooded terrian. It runs too fast, it is better ran on clear land, especially when you hit the power band... Hit that power band and you are haulin or on the back wheels.
Both machines perform well on our dirt track and both can out do a 97 camero off the start line (my boss and another co worker's race proved that, never seen someone ride a wheelie on a 4 wheeler for 200 ft)
Most of the problem is, people remember when they were 20, 18 or whatever age. They werent sharp on computers when they were that age. Hell, none of them had computers. They had to go through college to even hypothoisize about how they would program an 8 bit processor to add 2 + 2.
What is fun is when it really hits them that you can run circles around them in multiple operating systems when they can barely understand why 30 open word documents on their windows 95 computer causes slow downs and blue screens. What you need to do is just wait for the first situation where they run across unknown territory, and your experience covers it or your go ahead aditude and researching capabailities severly skunk them, you will then shine.
If you were to meet me in real life, you wouldnt have known I ran an internet server serving shells and web service, and know Im a co admin in a serious virus removal channel on the undernet (#dmsetup). I am also a committie member of Millennium Fortress a venue for christian underground PX, rock, ska and rapcore bands. I also work in the capacity of head sound tech and lighting tech (im trying to teach another guy to become the head light tech so I dont have to pull double duty all the time). I am also construction advisor and help on the construction team. The people that started Millennium Fortress are in their 40's, Im only 20, yet they realize my capabilities and flexability and my limits.
At work I have earned my respect by saving the database system 3 times after my boss has either botched it, had a computer crash while editing the tables or have the server crash. The third time the database went out, I had it back up in under and hour. I have also been able to replace 2 computer hard drives upon failure before the next buisness day in a pinch. (mind you IT and computer repair are not my only job) My posisiton in the company is a Truck Dispatcher at a Truck Brokerage. During a typical day I answer phone calls and dispatch trucks, resolve problems with loads and such.
I really have to say respect is earned not owed. You wont get respect till you can do the same work or better than the most respected worker doing the same job or a higher up job (Bosses dont count, cuz we all know they dont know much about actual work, just managing people)
I have seen 3 different versions in tigerdirect.com's catalog they send every month. One is called thumbdrive, the other 2 i cant quite remember the name to em. But they are available in capcities up to 256mb.
BTW, you can get usb extention cables, or you can make them from parts.
If I ever get a PDA with a usb port, I will most likely look into getting one of these things to store files on. Probably use it as a web page cache to be viewed with the PDA. Would come in quite useful if the 2 devices would interact prefectly.
That's odd, I have absolutly no troubles with our panasonic 2.4ghz gigahertz extreme. I have used it within a Tin roofed barn in prefect clarity where our 900mhz phone would crap out just walking beside. I recommend the phone and plan on buying another should I move out. Though i would get one with caller id and the built in answering machine.
I have yet to mess with wireless networks, but after finishing a little network trouble between my linux boxes, I might get bored and try to network the linux boxes to the windows pc in the living room via wireless. Im pretty sure there is no interference if you have newer equipment. Older speced stuff might have trouble or less channels. The 2.4ghz spec is a Range of a band and sidebands.. There should be a lot of airspace there.
I just remembered some games we played in our youth group.
Guess that song.. Our youth minister had a Rolland Midi Keyboard that would accept disks with midi files on them. He would download a bunch of songs and put them on a bunch of disks.. and we would try to guess the songs he would play. He would play only short peices of it to give us a hint.
Another game at youth camp, i think it was called spider web, where the camp counselors had put up some rope nailed it to a tree like a spider web. We had to get everybody through the web through the holes without reusing the same hole (they put masking tape across holes we had used). It's an ok game.
Hide and seek, or sardines are both non zero games (unless someone gives up but who does that?) Sardines is like hide and seek except one person hides, everyone goes looking for them, then as each person finds them they join the group hiding. (I was entertaining my boss's 4 year old at the office by playing hide and seek in the office, Even though Im nearly 6 ft tall, I can still hide well in a very small office behind doors)
Some games we played as kids were slugbug, where you yell out slugbug when you saw a VW bug then punch/tap someone on the sholder.
We also played "bury the cows" (which is easier to play here in Texas away from the cities). The game goes where you count the number of cows on your side of the car as you pass them. And if you pass a church or a graveyard you bury the cows and start back at 0. Eventually the game get's dropped by the time you got to the city, cuz you ran out of cows.
We also played alphabet, where you start off by searching for the letter A in the signs (or you can rule it to just license plates but in parking lot traffic or light traffic it doesnt play well, we usually use signage and plates). You just go seraching for one letter after the other in order. (usually we would start over several times, really good game for in the city when you ran out of cows)
popeye is best played at night, you watch for a car that has a headlight out, then you yell popeye and hop up and hit the roof with your hand (some ppl would just hit the roof with their head)
Each of these games can turn competitive if you counted, but who cares?
Skip buying up modems and talk to your local telephone company about their virtural modem pool operation. The telco can set up several modems and lines in one of their switching stations and then send the data from/to the modems over the switch network or over the internet to your own box.
This affords you to be able to put pops just about anywhere, because the telco is just about anywhere.
Slashdot Mirror
If you are really a geek, you should know or be the geek that has a server that can handle the task. I owned a server for about a year hosting services for other people. One of my friends and customers really got into it and started his own server, then when mine got stolen (fscking uplink owner stole the cohosted box) he and I worked out some deal that I would help him keep his server running and advise him on anything new while he hosts my 2 domains 2 websites and email/reversed dns's on a few ips.
But now he has sold/joined another service provider, so now im not admin. But I get to hold what little things i have now (2 sites 3 bots 2 hosted domains and emails) till they either decide to audit and clear out users.
Surely before then, Ill have another server up again. I cant live without a little tinkering.
DRACO-
You neglected to mention weather this IVR is going to be a palm sized device, a laptop, a desktop, a server tower, a beowolf cluster answering telephones. Or is this going to be set up like on startrek shows, "computer do such and such" with all the appropriate beeping tones?
What the hell is the application other than "an interactive voice response (IVR) system"
Will this need to sample audio figure out what the hell people are trying to say, and then form a response? Or is it supposed to understand a command such as "AZIZ, LIGHT!" (or more appropriate "Lights please").
Please either reply with appropriate information or try submitting a fuller question next time. Otherwise you will only get halfassed answers, and by luck you might get a suggestion such as mine, to redefine your question.
DRACO-
Back when I was in high school, i had 3 classes that had at least one desktop per student. The way that teacher taught is by giving a lecture the first day, before any pc got booted. Her lecture explained what she expected of the students, and what kind of freedoms were alotted to them as their responsibilitys as well. She personally bought site liscences for several microsoft game packs that she allowed us to play when we completed our assignments. Our assignments would be usually 2 or 3 lessons each taking merely 5 to 15 min depending on the structure of the lesson. After work was complete we would print and turn in our assignments, then play games.
The way the place was set up.. there were 4 desks/computers/chairs to a group.. each faced in a rotated star facing clockwise of the group. Everyone can see everyone else's screens, if they wanted to. Plagerism was not tolorated. The setup was good for group moderation. (why are you playing tetris, she's giving a lesson)
Sure there were some of us that could get away with hacking each other's machines. (I did it) It did help all of the classes are advanced classes, so the goof off creeps that dont want to be anywhere near a place that you have to actually think were filtered out before schedules were made. Four of us in the class had advanced knowledge of computers, three of them being in my group, including myself... We usually finished our assignments the quickest, printed the code out and handed it in and then proceeded to cause each other trouble if they werent finished or play the teacher's games. (We would junk up the other's hard drives while they were compiling to make it take longer or make the loose print jobs.) It's fun playing god with someone else's computer.
All in all, we did ok. The teacher was able to keep a lot of control over the class with the freedoms and responsiblity phrase. She would just have to mention that and the person in the wrong thing would see and understand their fault and adjust to classroom activity.
DRACO-
What the hell do you need a palm pilot? Just get a data collector with keyboard interface and small screen. Enter your location, then enter floor, enter wing, enter room, (enter part of room if needed) Scan computer, scan pre printed list of usual jobs, or punch in. Continue work thru day..
:P
Return to CENTRAL and download data from data collector.
You could speed things up if the location has a barcode, the floor listings on the elevators have a barcode and the rooms have barcodes... but we dont live in that kind of world
DRACO-
sounds like a busy pci bus.. try checking your latency timers. I get simular "scrachy" tunes when one of my hard drives spins up for the 4 am locate database rebuild. It seems the cpu isnt giving the sound card enough cycles vs my ide card.
DRACO-
I have one of those cd selectors.. It sucks bad... I bought one for my audio cds. It has a strange wow neato what's this effect on people that never seen it. They ask what's that.. then want to look in the box and play with accessing cd's. The next thing that happens, Im picking up the whole pile of 40+ cds the moron just dumped all over the rough concrete. I think this is how my dearly departed Losing Miss Bliss cd--local band which burned their own discs--developed that severe skip on track 4 thru 6.. I wish the person that borrowed that cd would return it.. Oh the comfort of having mp3 copies :P
The stupid boxes dont hold cd's well while the top is opened. The cd's sit in stalls that are very very small, with nothing securing them while the top is open. After the 4th idiot, I purchased a second exo 64 cd softwallet--it has a plastic outer bumper exo skeleton which helps protect it. I already owned one before i bought the cd selector and liked it quite a bit. I prefer to have my cds held securly in the pockets of these.
DRACO-
Finally the lamoid spammers which no one can close the hamper on will stop... or at least change their freaking repeating message i get every 3 days warning me that .biz is about to be online and i should register my domain name soon.
.biz is bullshiz. I suggest everyone shy away from .biz and all buisnesses associated with registering .biz. Even better.. ignore .biz all together... and warn anyone trying to use .biz that they are not in the normal suffix search order, that anyone just typing googoo without a . will not search for gooogoo.biz except by browsers that have search engine attempts built into the search bar (a la mozilla-netscape aol)
Im like pisssh..
DRACO-
The best (electronic) reference card is the tab key.
Dont know what to do.. hit tab twice. Bash will go thru the paths and list the programs available to be ran (set executable). From there just use man or any other help facility.
I have shocked many linux users that have been using linux longer than i have by showing them the tab-completion lists. It works for every argument.
try typing ca, then hit tab... you get a list of all executable commands with ca in them...
then try cat (a space) and tab twice, you get a list of applicable files in your current working directory.
It works great for even searching the directory tree. (really helpful while doing a lot of transversing of the directory tree)
DRACO-
I remember reading something in pop sci or pop mechanics about a helo with a chain net that would get dragged across mined areas to disturb the mines and cause them to blow.
I also once saw an article about some kind of tank with a plow like front end that would upturn the ground. It took care of the mines, but probably is slow work.
FP
DRACO-
Those wedge bots use a trac type drive system.. left stick controls the left trac/wheel and right stick controls right trac/wheel. If you ever drive a dixon lawnmower or a bulldozer it all comes natural. Both sticks forward for going forward, both sticks back for going backwards. 360 left with right stick forward and left back, 360 right with left forward and right back. simple right turns with left stick forward and right stick slowed or off (or yanked back momentarily for braking).
The pistol grips dont provide the right control for trac/separate side driven vehicles. Pistol grips are ok for stuff that drives like a car.
Joystick controls would be ok to control either design, car or trac. For a car style with joystick design forward/rev would control for/aft movement motors and left/right would control steering. For trac style forward would activiate both tracs to go forward... back would activate both tracs to go back. and left would possibly do 360 unless you programmed the 360 movements with buttons, and had left just kick the right trac forward. ditto right. But with a trac/joystick, there could be confusion of the zones where it would stop going forward and start trying to turn. (need some programming)
If i had an unlimited supply of $ i wouldnt mind putting my traxxas nitro powered rc truck in the ring after buying all the metal replacement parts and adding a modified roll cage and add some kind of anti roll mech. My traxxas tends to roll pretty often as a cause of braking too fast or trying to turn at full speed (gotta remember star trek rules.. warp speed in straight lines, and turn on impulse speeds). I would also want to fix my reverse gear so i can repeatily ram someone (my reverse sometimes gets stuck or becomes nutral). I know this thing has a lot of weight and can pretty well ram anything. Add short peircing spike to the front and back, and start her up!
I have taken my traxxas indoors onto concrete gym floors, confusing donuts are very easy :P power slides, and brake slides on smooth concrete require skill. (I love doing that stuff while ppl are standing around gawking.. just power slide right in front of them, then come back and brake slide to a stop at their feet and blow full throttle in reverse to left or right for some awesome donuts!) Im sure playing around in one of those robot war places would be simular surface.
John Doe
Clone #1
John Doe
Clone #2
John Doe
Clone #3
have several of these printed up...
then print up a bunch with random numbers.. hex
binary.
God of Binaries
Computer Witch Doctor
Child
Ugly Bag of Water
(from star trek)
Failed Sience Experiment #8347
Computer Totin', Bug shootin' Cowboy.
(follow up with a "Howdy y'all")
Bugwrestler
Codeboy (like cowboy)
!$&!&(@#.. [error no carrier]
EOF
Destroyer of cheap hard drives
Computer Savior of the Damned
computer mechanic
Yes.. that damned Monkey-wrench
Expert toast maker - I toast NICs
Wire Stripper
(for those that run wire)
Spiderman
(for those that run wire)
Monitor Monitor
Poison tester #91497914987149879814987249814298912
Digital Wallpaper Hanger
Digital interior decorator
Spagettii machine
(for network admin)
Stable boy
(for unix/linux ppl)
Painter of Blue Screens
(for windows dorks)
log flusher
(could work for admins as well as janitors)
man im ROTFLMAO after thinking up that one..
I better stop before i wake everyone else up laughing.
I currently helping administer a few freebsd servers for shell services (doing it for free in order to be able to use the servers as web space and remote database testing). Most of what im handed to do is kick around a few domains and upgrade the mail server. I also keep a check on the other admins.
Before this hobby started I was working at a truck brokerage. I kept the computers running well enough that I had a lot of extra time on my hands. Well soon enough the boss figured out im spending a lot of my time doing nothing and sent me on my way. 4 weeks later *BAMN* a thunderstorm hits.. and all the computers were still running. Network hub fried, a few network cards fried and the breaker on the ups got tripped and the breaker for the server room got tripped.
The next day they call me up early 8am (mind you i dont get up till 11 am cuz of my evening job). I ignore the answering machine and doze back off to sleep. Then I wake up at 11am and check the answering machine, the boss wants me to call him (no info about what's going on). I give him a call and he lays down what has happened, they even had some knuckle head try to fix the network but couldnt. So off I go to save their buisness life. I get there, the hub has been replaced, the network cards in 1 computer is missing the server is opened up.. i replace the nic in the server and add one to one of the workstations, reset the network addresses. I think the knucklehead wiped them out cuz he thought that they were automatically assigned, no i left it easier than that and designated ip addresses for every machine so they wouldnt have any problems if any other machine wasnt up (including the dhcp server, if i ever made one). I had their network up in less than half an hour and reinstalled windows on accounting's computer (dunno how it lost so many startup files) and reinstalled their accounting software. Fixed the printer.. and got a $400.00 check for my trouble. (tho part of that check was considered for past payments they forgot to send me)
About the time I got the network functioning correctly and had the dispatchers database back online, one of the dispatchers asked the boss how I got it fixed so fast and that other guy couldnt get nothing done. The boss responded "Well, I guess you just have to know what you are doing..." That pleased me plunty.
After that day I have seriously considered going and looking for another sysadmin style job. Im working retail right now, and it's not my favorite thing to do. Right now im getting my butt chewed out for catch 22's. Either i help a customer and get chewed on by management for leaving my (locked) register, or i ignore the customer that needs help and stay at the (locked) and silent register and get talked about behind my back by the customer for not helping them.
Im getting ready to tell management to fly a kite and start searching for a sysadmin job again. (i was getting paid more as a sysadmin at the truck brokerage than i am now working in retail)
I have seen some type of game gear from microsoft that allows chatter during games, i have never tested it to know if it works for your application. I have ran across them at Radio shack and walmart so im sure they arnt too obscure.
On the other hand (you hopefully have less than 6 digits), Motrola might have a buisness package set of radios that can work better than you would ever dream. If you listen to police scanners enough you may hear of cops losing radios and contacting a dispatcher to go over to the radio console and killing a radio's ability to work with the rest of the group. Also, if you work with motrola, you wont have any trouble with the FCC or buying licenses since motrolla will be the one buying the license for the spectrum you are using.
Another option from motrola is a cell phone which also operates as a radio. from what i understand the usage as a radio incuurs no charges. One of the little towns i once walked a parade in seemed to have these cells phones everywhere.. The firefighters, the Church staff (the parade got rained out and I directed my float to a large covering at a church before our float got drowned and really started floating away)
Stare at a few HAM sites, you will be blown away at some of the technology that's around already (please place a napkin over your keyboard so you dont drool on it).
DJ mixer boxes are pretty heavy and hard to carry. The only mixer box i have even remotely liked was on caster wheels. I have also seen one at pssl.com (pro studio stage and lighting) that has large rear wheels and front casters that might be nice. But you are looking for carry type stuff.
My uncle once gave me a amstrad XT Luggable/portable (i cant say it's a laptop cuz it would need the lap of 2 1/2 ppl). Flip up full size keyboard, mono lcd screen, 2 3 1/2 floppies no hds no sound... It toted real well with a handle on the left end (it hung vertically lengthwise) but it ate battries faster than a 10000 watt flashlight. Now if someone could make something sturdier than that thing, with a kb like that and a full size backlit lcd screen, it would rock!
Another good design might be a lunchbox that carries the same way vertical longways.. maybe adding casters.
One of my wishes is for the next case design spec to include fully forced air filtered intakes, external power supply ultamately built into an ups since you already have one of those right? I think getting rid of the large power connectors for hard drives/cds ect in favor of smaller plugs like the mini 3 1/2 floppy power plug would save a good bit of space (you always need a lot of turning room for the wires to turn from the plug. I think a side power bus bar or a standardized slot like a nesting carrage would greatly improve the needed room inside a case.
All of the above power suggestions could be moot point if they start including 6 wire FIREWIRE on the motherboard. Now that would rock for space saving concerns!
LOL good signature..
Ok, problem.. most sound boards are not wired for stereo input. They are wired for balanced and unbalanced inputs. Your best bet would be to pick up one of those radio shack dj booth boards. They have stereo connects.
If all you have is a standard sound board with balanced and unbalanced inputs (3rd ring is ground not a second channel) You need to split the left and right stereo channels onto separate sound board channels and then pan them left and right appropriately. Take it from me, it sounds better than just jacking a stereo connect into an unbalanced connection (very bad signal quality that way).
Im head sound tech at a local underground (the best places to work) px rock avenue and regularly use multiple cd players, mp3 players and computers on the same boards without trouble using this method. Only a few low end boards will have stereo phono inputs on one slider. I belive it is because most professionals use large 40+ channel boards that have more room to double up with and they also use phono cable or 1/4 leads that dont have to be split with stuff from the "extra parts" drawer.
You might want to check fullcompass.com. They will send out a heafty catalog if you request it.
I would want one of these for an in car mp3 server, it's the perfect size. I have thought about looking at 1u rackmounts to put in my trunk, but this thing could sit under my seat!. I gotta wonder tho, how resistant to bumps it is.. and heat (shut off)... It would also be great for using at the concert hall i work for. Small enough to get locked away and easily portable.
Something else I have noticed with 2 stroke engines are the spark plug foulings.. At work we have a dirt bike with a 2 stroke engine(small family company.. we have a lot of fun on the weekends). The first week we had the thing we fouled out all our spare plugs and any new plug wouldnt get the damn thing started. Instead of going all the way to houston for new plugs, we went to the local orileys shop and asked for a hotter firing plug. We still foul out plugs on it but it is running. I liked the bike a little, but couldnt stand the power band hit on it.. I couldnt drive the damn thing without riding a wheelie.
I never really liked the bike much, I liked my boss's 4 wheeler Yamaha Raptor, it really kicks some ass. You can do wheelies on up to 4th gear. But this monster doesnt do any good for driving slow, towing or really rough wooded terrian. It runs too fast, it is better ran on clear land, especially when you hit the power band... Hit that power band and you are haulin or on the back wheels.
Both machines perform well on our dirt track and both can out do a 97 camero off the start line (my boss and another co worker's race proved that, never seen someone ride a wheelie on a 4 wheeler for 200 ft)
Most of the problem is, people remember when they were 20, 18 or whatever age. They werent sharp on computers when they were that age. Hell, none of them had computers. They had to go through college to even hypothoisize about how they would program an 8 bit processor to add 2 + 2.
What is fun is when it really hits them that you can run circles around them in multiple operating systems when they can barely understand why 30 open word documents on their windows 95 computer causes slow downs and blue screens. What you need to do is just wait for the first situation where they run across unknown territory, and your experience covers it or your go ahead aditude and researching capabailities severly skunk them, you will then shine.
If you were to meet me in real life, you wouldnt have known I ran an internet server serving shells and web service, and know Im a co admin in a serious virus removal channel on the undernet (#dmsetup). I am also a committie member of Millennium Fortress a venue for christian underground PX, rock, ska and rapcore bands. I also work in the capacity of head sound tech and lighting tech (im trying to teach another guy to become the head light tech so I dont have to pull double duty all the time). I am also construction advisor and help on the construction team. The people that started Millennium Fortress are in their 40's, Im only 20, yet they realize my capabilities and flexability and my limits.
At work I have earned my respect by saving the database system 3 times after my boss has either botched it, had a computer crash while editing the tables or have the server crash. The third time the database went out, I had it back up in under and hour. I have also been able to replace 2 computer hard drives upon failure before the next buisness day in a pinch. (mind you IT and computer repair are not my only job) My posisiton in the company is a Truck Dispatcher at a Truck Brokerage. During a typical day I answer phone calls and dispatch trucks, resolve problems with loads and such.
I really have to say respect is earned not owed. You wont get respect till you can do the same work or better than the most respected worker doing the same job or a higher up job (Bosses dont count, cuz we all know they dont know much about actual work, just managing people)
I have seen 3 different versions in tigerdirect.com's catalog they send every month. One is called thumbdrive, the other 2 i cant quite remember the name to em. But they are available in capcities up to 256mb.
BTW, you can get usb extention cables, or you can make them from parts.
If I ever get a PDA with a usb port, I will most likely look into getting one of these things to store files on. Probably use it as a web page cache to be viewed with the PDA. Would come in quite useful if the 2 devices would interact prefectly.
That's odd, I have absolutly no troubles with our panasonic 2.4ghz gigahertz extreme. I have used it within a Tin roofed barn in prefect clarity where our 900mhz phone would crap out just walking beside. I recommend the phone and plan on buying another should I move out. Though i would get one with caller id and the built in answering machine.
I have yet to mess with wireless networks, but after finishing a little network trouble between my linux boxes, I might get bored and try to network the linux boxes to the windows pc in the living room via wireless. Im pretty sure there is no interference if you have newer equipment. Older speced stuff might have trouble or less channels. The 2.4ghz spec is a Range of a band and sidebands.. There should be a lot of airspace there.
I just remembered some games we played in our youth group.
Guess that song.. Our youth minister had a Rolland Midi Keyboard that would accept disks with midi files on them. He would download a bunch of songs and put them on a bunch of disks.. and we would try to guess the songs he would play. He would play only short peices of it to give us a hint.
Another game at youth camp, i think it was called spider web, where the camp counselors had put up some rope nailed it to a tree like a spider web. We had to get everybody through the web through the holes without reusing the same hole (they put masking tape across holes we had used). It's an ok game.
Hide and seek, or sardines are both non zero games (unless someone gives up but who does that?) Sardines is like hide and seek except one person hides, everyone goes looking for them, then as each person finds them they join the group hiding. (I was entertaining my boss's 4 year old at the office by playing hide and seek in the office, Even though Im nearly 6 ft tall, I can still hide well in a very small office behind doors)
Some games we played as kids were slugbug, where you yell out slugbug when you saw a VW bug then punch/tap someone on the sholder.
We also played "bury the cows" (which is easier to play here in Texas away from the cities). The game goes where you count the number of cows on your side of the car as you pass them. And if you pass a church or a graveyard you bury the cows and start back at 0. Eventually the game get's dropped by the time you got to the city, cuz you ran out of cows.
We also played alphabet, where you start off by searching for the letter A in the signs (or you can rule it to just license plates but in parking lot traffic or light traffic it doesnt play well, we usually use signage and plates). You just go seraching for one letter after the other in order. (usually we would start over several times, really good game for in the city when you ran out of cows)
popeye is best played at night, you watch for a car that has a headlight out, then you yell popeye and hop up and hit the roof with your hand (some ppl would just hit the roof with their head)
Each of these games can turn competitive if you counted, but who cares?
Skip buying up modems and talk to your local telephone company about their virtural modem pool operation. The telco can set up several modems and lines in one of their switching stations and then send the data from/to the modems over the switch network or over the internet to your own box.
This affords you to be able to put pops just about anywhere, because the telco is just about anywhere.