There ARE no consequences... not right now
on
Cheap Robot Kits?
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· Score: 1
You are correct in that these are 'soulless' machines. But you have just struck down your whole argument. A robot as it is today is just a motorized device. It accepts commands that tell it where to move. The only way it interacts is, a, it does what you tell it to do, b, when it cant do it it gives you an error message and c, if you stand too close to it while its program is running it bonks you in the head. It does not try to mimic emotions or even an identity (unless you count Device Controller 0x05c on COM1). It does not try to have a conversation with you. and it is not even intelligent enough to do anything without commands. It is similar to (gasp!) the computer you are sitting in front of, Anonymous Coward. And I am inferring that you do like computers (your post was submitted at 3:45 AM). So I agree with you. We must prevent the spread of robotics and anything like them. They have no soul. Why dont you start by smashing that computer in front of you? its 100x smarter and more 'soulless' then the stupid robot.
thats perfect... a bit expensive though. any cheaper solutions? ways to rewire the RS232 directly to the slink? Also, what about satellite decoding?
Satellite Compatibility/DirecTV/Control-S?
on
Make Your Own TiVo?
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· Score: 1
I am thinking about building something like this... the only problem is that I want to be able to get programming from DirecTV (a satellite TV company). My sony DTV reciever has a 'smart card', which I am not sure could be adapted to this unit unless it just descrambled everything in software. But the DTV box has a thing called Control-S. This uses a simple serial connection which allows the DTV to control my current VCR, tell it to turn on, record, stop and shut off at the correct time. In theory, could you rewire it to a standard PC serial port? For those not familiar with Control-S, it uses a standard mono minijack audio cable as a connection. I believe it could be used two-way (to control the DTV)... I am currently using a sony SAT-B2 DTV box and a Sony SLV-770HF VCR.
I think the best way to do it is a network appliance. Linksys has a device which is basicly a 20GB hard drive and a network card... cheap net storage. Modify this a bit, add a CD-R drive, possibly an autoloader, maybe add a cheap printing thing that prints labels and applies them to the CD, and presto. The source computer transfers the entire CD to the device's drive, which gets checked, burned, and labeled. If done right it could be cheap!
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You are correct in that these are 'soulless' machines. But you have just struck down your whole argument. A robot as it is today is just a motorized device. It accepts commands that tell it where to move. The only way it interacts is, a, it does what you tell it to do, b, when it cant do it it gives you an error message and c, if you stand too close to it while its program is running it bonks you in the head. It does not try to mimic emotions or even an identity (unless you count Device Controller 0x05c on COM1). It does not try to have a conversation with you. and it is not even intelligent enough to do anything without commands. It is similar to (gasp!) the computer you are sitting in front of, Anonymous Coward. And I am inferring that you do like computers (your post was submitted at 3:45 AM). So I agree with you. We must prevent the spread of robotics and anything like them. They have no soul. Why dont you start by smashing that computer in front of you? its 100x smarter and more 'soulless' then the stupid robot.
thats perfect... a bit expensive though. any cheaper solutions? ways to rewire the RS232 directly to the slink? Also, what about satellite decoding?
I am thinking about building something like this... the only problem is that I want to be able to get programming from DirecTV (a satellite TV company). My sony DTV reciever has a 'smart card', which I am not sure could be adapted to this unit unless it just descrambled everything in software. But the DTV box has a thing called Control-S. This uses a simple serial connection which allows the DTV to control my current VCR, tell it to turn on, record, stop and shut off at the correct time. In theory, could you rewire it to a standard PC serial port? For those not familiar with Control-S, it uses a standard mono minijack audio cable as a connection. I believe it could be used two-way (to control the DTV)... I am currently using a sony SAT-B2 DTV box and a Sony SLV-770HF VCR.
I think the best way to do it is a network appliance. Linksys has a device which is basicly a 20GB hard drive and a network card... cheap net storage. Modify this a bit, add a CD-R drive, possibly an autoloader, maybe add a cheap printing thing that prints labels and applies them to the CD, and presto. The source computer transfers the entire CD to the device's drive, which gets checked, burned, and labeled. If done right it could be cheap!