They said in the text above that they use the parallel port to interface with the relays. Transistors for level shifters, if required, are pretty straightforward.
They are very similar, in a perverse way, to high end audiophiles who insist that nothing will ever perform as well as tubes and direct-drive turn tables.
This is totally off topic, but hardcore audiophiles (at least the analog lovers that still own turntables) wouldn't be caught dead with a direct-drive turntable. Sure, they're great for DJs (Technics SL-1200 anyone?), but if you're going analog, be a luddite! Belt drive does isolate motor vibrations from the disc platter (the motor is usually suspended on cushions or on a seperate chassis on high end players). Plus, direct drive tables usually use a phase locked loop, and that's sort of digital, so it's another strike against the breed.
Then, of course, there's the question of whether vinyl sounds better than CD. Here's my assessment: good quality records, played back on the best audio systems, sound better than the best CDs. However, average systems are better off with CD playback. Good vinyl playback is hard to do properly. Crackle, hiss, and pops are pretty rare if you keep your records clean, and you really don't notice them after you realize how beautiful and real the music sounds on a good record.
This train line is actually pretty darn impressive. I was in Shanghai three weeks ago, and to get from the city to the airport, we took a highway that for much of its length runs parallel to the train "tracks". The train's path is, for at least a good portion of the trip, elevated on huge concrete pillars, thus avoiding cows and other earthbound wildlife. The train itself looks pretty cool, too.
Shanghai, BTW, is a very nice city- at least the areas I saw. I got the impression there is, relative to many other Chinese cities, a lot of money there.
At one point in the story they mention that this is downloadable SECURE DIGITAL music. When will the music industry catch on? People want their MP3 (and ogg around here of course). Guessing this is destined to be another failure.
My former university's radio station started as a cable FM station and existed for years that way. While I was in school, they decided to go "on the air" with a 100 watt transmitter. There are several things that have to be done to get an FCC license:
(1) Site survey. This cost a few K$. Basically an engineer has to figure out how far your signal will propagate given your proposed antenna location and broadcast power. This determines whom you'll be interfering with, if anybody. It also helps determine what broadcast frequencies are available.
(2) You need a broadcast engineer on staff, at least part time. This is an FCC requirement. In our small town, we just paid the engineer from a local commercial station a modest sum to help us out and fulfill the FCC requirement.
(3) Not sure you'll have to pay royalties if you're an educational station (below 92 FM, I think). But, you'll have to get licesned as such, and your university will have to buy in.
(4) There are a ton of rules and regulations you have to follow. Examples: hourly monitoring of your broadcast power & modulation to be sure you're not 'bleeding' into adjacent stations & violating your license; I think you have to have someone there 24/7 when you're broadcasting in case things go wrong; station IDs at the top and bottom of every hour; maintenance on your transmitter; etc etc.
(5) You have to get an antenna. A tall building in the area might let you site on top of their building, but you'll have to pay for the antenna, transmitter, cabling back to your station, etc.
There's more, but I'm tired of typing. I would suggest getting your university involved and setting up a campus radio station. The school might throw in the funds. You could also consider cable FM. It's a pretty cool way to more easily get your signal out there, particularly if other stations are already on cable FM.
If you search for "google", the first hit is, of course, google. The interesting thing is that the text comes out correctly for this search only. Cute, but not quite sure why they did it.
I did some graduate research into a chemical called "hexachlorobenzene" that was used until the 1970s as a pesticide. A tragic event occured in the 70s when a shipment of wheat treated with HCB was sent to a famine-stricken Turkey. The treated wheat was supposed to be used ONLY as seed. Unfortunately, the starving citizens instead ground up the wheat and made it into bread. The highly toxic HCB caused a tremendous number of health problems including lots of dead and deformed babies and horrible effects in the adults too.
HCB has since been banned and is no longer produced.
So, based on that horrible incident, I wouldn't really expect these folks to plant the genetically engineered corn if they're starving.
Seems like this being an infrared laser would make it much harder to (1) find; and (2) reflect. I assume infrared mirrors exist, but I suspect reflecting back this pulsed laser wouldn't be trivial.
Check out the robocode website: "Build a robotic tank applet in Java and send it into battle!" Haven't done much of it myself but it was an interesting way to get started with Java.
I was an early adopter of Verizon DSL in my area. I had it for a couple of years and then moved across town, cancelling the DSL in the process (moved to cable modem). My new bill looked fine for a month, then all of a sudden the DSL charges started up again! Because of the "deregulation" of the industry, Verizon had three different divisions I had to deal with and none of them could directly talk to each other. (They are the ISP, a company that provides the physical DSL link, and the phone company itself, I believe). So- these bills are showing up, and nobody can find where in the computer system they're coming from.
I finally got the problem resolved: I called the two offending companies at the same time- one on my cell phone and the other on my land line (cordless). I got in the waiting queues, and lo and behold I got customer "service" reps on the line from both companies at the same time (about 20 minutes on hold). So I had one rep in each ear, and I was passing info from one to the other: "ask her to check out this entry... search on this code..." etc. Finally they were able to locate my information and cancel the billing. I guess my early adopter status put me in some obscure system that they had shifted away from or something like that. What a nightmare. Of course my cell phone has lousy reception indoors, so I was standing out on my lawn yammering into a phone on each ear. I suspect my new neighbors got quite a kick out of seeing this.
I have to admit that the cable company has been much easier to deal with then the phone company, as scary as that sounds.
It seems that the US is pretty fond of heavily taxing or banning imports of products that are sold "below cost"- they call it "dumping". (Think steel, DRAM, etc). I wonder why Japan hasn't banned or put a stiff tariff on the Xbox since Microsoft is "illegally dumping" the Xbox in order to steal market share from Sony's PS2.
Could be an interesting tactic if X-box starts winning some significant share...
I was at an electronics show (CES or COMDEX, can't recall) a year ago where I saw Cisco demonstrating Wi-Fi voice handsets. They are designed to work in buildings that already use (wired) IP telephony... just carry your handset with you when you go into the lab and you're still on the IP phone network.
Also, I think Home Depot uses this technology. If you look at the back of their stores, you'll see a box on the wall that looks suspiciously like a big 802.11 access point. Makes sense to have voice & data on the same hardware if there's a cost savings.
I visited a large Asian electronics manufacturer last year. When entering the facility, they inspected every piece of electronics I entered with. Cameras (both film and digital) had to be left at the desk. Laptops had their memory slots and peripheral slots covered with company-issued security tape to be sure I didn't add or remove anything. CDs, tapes, and other recording media were not permitted in the building. When leaving, my bags were X-rayed to be sure I wasn't taking anything forbidden out.
Land's End Blanket based on this stuff is recalled
on
Self-Warming Jackets
·
· Score: 1
Oops. The first commercial implementation of this technology (in a very big selling electric blanket from Land's End) is being recalled. From Land's End's website:
CPSC, Lands' End, Inc. Announce Recall of Electric Blankets
PRODUCT: Electric Blanket -- Lands' End, Inc. of Dodgeville, Wis., is voluntarily recalling about 15,000 Polartec Heat® electric blankets. The recalled blankets are style numbers 73176, 73197 and 73198.
2002-02-05 03:25:19 TiVo analyzes your Super Bowl viewing habits (articles,news) (rejected)
I've seen many other people complain about the same thing... submit a story, watch it get rejected ASAP, see it posted the next day. Happened to me twice now. Guess it really isn't worth submitting a story.
The most interesting thing I got out of this article was near the end. They mention that the 8086 was Intel's "backup plan" twenty years ago and that it was designed in THREE WEEKS! I think we finally have an explanation for why the instruction set is such a pain to work with.
The radiation level that the USPS is testing now (and maybe has in production already) is so high that even radiation-hardened microchips (for space and defense systems) cannot withstand it. Also, some packages have been reportedly catching on fire because of the high radiation levels.
We have three native Polish speakers in my office. I asked one of them to translate the professor's reply. She said the gist of it is that he was upset they released his name, he didn't authorize any information release, etc. Apparently didn't deny or confirm the truth of the information but said something about having "more important things in my career" or something like that (not verbatim quote).
Slashdot Mirror
They said in the text above that they use the parallel port to interface with the relays. Transistors for level shifters, if required, are pretty straightforward.
They are very similar, in a perverse way, to high end audiophiles who insist that nothing will ever perform as well as tubes and direct-drive turn tables.
This is totally off topic, but hardcore audiophiles (at least the analog lovers that still own turntables) wouldn't be caught dead with a direct-drive turntable. Sure, they're great for DJs (Technics SL-1200 anyone?), but if you're going analog, be a luddite! Belt drive does isolate motor vibrations from the disc platter (the motor is usually suspended on cushions or on a seperate chassis on high end players). Plus, direct drive tables usually use a phase locked loop, and that's sort of digital, so it's another strike against the breed.
Then, of course, there's the question of whether vinyl sounds better than CD. Here's my assessment: good quality records, played back on the best audio systems, sound better than the best CDs. However, average systems are better off with CD playback. Good vinyl playback is hard to do properly. Crackle, hiss, and pops are pretty rare if you keep your records clean, and you really don't notice them after you realize how beautiful and real the music sounds on a good record.
This train line is actually pretty darn impressive. I was in Shanghai three weeks ago, and to get from the city to the airport, we took a highway that for much of its length runs parallel to the train "tracks". The train's path is, for at least a good portion of the trip, elevated on huge concrete pillars, thus avoiding cows and other earthbound wildlife. The train itself looks pretty cool, too.
Shanghai, BTW, is a very nice city- at least the areas I saw. I got the impression there is, relative to many other Chinese cities, a lot of money there.
At one point in the story they mention that this is downloadable SECURE DIGITAL music. When will the music industry catch on? People want their MP3 (and ogg around here of course). Guessing this is destined to be another failure.
(1) Site survey. This cost a few K$. Basically an engineer has to figure out how far your signal will propagate given your proposed antenna location and broadcast power. This determines whom you'll be interfering with, if anybody. It also helps determine what broadcast frequencies are available.
(2) You need a broadcast engineer on staff, at least part time. This is an FCC requirement. In our small town, we just paid the engineer from a local commercial station a modest sum to help us out and fulfill the FCC requirement.
(3) Not sure you'll have to pay royalties if you're an educational station (below 92 FM, I think). But, you'll have to get licesned as such, and your university will have to buy in.
(4) There are a ton of rules and regulations you have to follow. Examples: hourly monitoring of your broadcast power & modulation to be sure you're not 'bleeding' into adjacent stations & violating your license; I think you have to have someone there 24/7 when you're broadcasting in case things go wrong; station IDs at the top and bottom of every hour; maintenance on your transmitter; etc etc.
(5) You have to get an antenna. A tall building in the area might let you site on top of their building, but you'll have to pay for the antenna, transmitter, cabling back to your station, etc.
There's more, but I'm tired of typing.
I would suggest getting your university involved and setting up a campus radio station. The school might throw in the funds. You could also consider cable FM. It's a pretty cool way to more easily get your signal out there, particularly if other stations are already on cable FM.
If you search for "google", the first hit is, of course, google. The interesting thing is that the text comes out correctly for this search only. Cute, but not quite sure why they did it.
HCB has since been banned and is no longer produced.
So, based on that horrible incident, I wouldn't really expect these folks to plant the genetically engineered corn if they're starving.
Seems like this being an infrared laser would make it much harder to (1) find; and (2) reflect. I assume infrared mirrors exist, but I suspect reflecting back this pulsed laser wouldn't be trivial.
Check out the robocode website: "Build a robotic tank applet in Java and send it into battle!" Haven't done much of it myself but it was an interesting way to get started with Java.
Just curious... don't we already have a national propulsion lab in JPL? I'm just going by the name as I don't know too much about it... ?
Here's a good one:
I was an early adopter of Verizon DSL in my area. I had it for a couple of years and then moved across town, cancelling the DSL in the process (moved to cable modem). My new bill looked fine for a month, then all of a sudden the DSL charges started up again! Because of the "deregulation" of the industry, Verizon had three different divisions I had to deal with and none of them could directly talk to each other. (They are the ISP, a company that provides the physical DSL link, and the phone company itself, I believe). So- these bills are showing up, and nobody can find where in the computer system they're coming from.
I finally got the problem resolved: I called the two offending companies at the same time- one on my cell phone and the other on my land line (cordless). I got in the waiting queues, and lo and behold I got customer "service" reps on the line from both companies at the same time (about 20 minutes on hold). So I had one rep in each ear, and I was passing info from one to the other: "ask her to check out this entry... search on this code..." etc. Finally they were able to locate my information and cancel the billing. I guess my early adopter status put me in some obscure system that they had shifted away from or something like that. What a nightmare. Of course my cell phone has lousy reception indoors, so I was standing out on my lawn yammering into a phone on each ear. I suspect my new neighbors got quite a kick out of seeing this.
I have to admit that the cable company has been much easier to deal with then the phone company, as scary as that sounds.
It seems that the US is pretty fond of heavily taxing or banning imports of products that are sold "below cost"- they call it "dumping". (Think steel, DRAM, etc). I wonder why Japan hasn't banned or put a stiff tariff on the Xbox since Microsoft is "illegally dumping" the Xbox in order to steal market share from Sony's PS2.
Could be an interesting tactic if X-box starts winning some significant share...
I was at an electronics show (CES or COMDEX, can't recall) a year ago where I saw Cisco demonstrating Wi-Fi voice handsets. They are designed to work in buildings that already use (wired) IP telephony... just carry your handset with you when you go into the lab and you're still on the IP phone network.
Also, I think Home Depot uses this technology. If you look at the back of their stores, you'll see a box on the wall that looks suspiciously like a big 802.11 access point. Makes sense to have voice & data on the same hardware if there's a cost savings.
I visited a large Asian electronics manufacturer last year. When entering the facility, they inspected every piece of electronics I entered with. Cameras (both film and digital) had to be left at the desk. Laptops had their memory slots and peripheral slots covered with company-issued security tape to be sure I didn't add or remove anything. CDs, tapes, and other recording media were not permitted in the building. When leaving, my bags were X-rayed to be sure I wasn't taking anything forbidden out.
Oops. The first commercial implementation of this technology (in a very big selling electric blanket from Land's End) is being recalled. From Land's End's website:
CPSC, Lands' End, Inc. Announce Recall of Electric Blankets
PRODUCT: Electric Blanket -- Lands' End, Inc. of Dodgeville, Wis., is voluntarily recalling about 15,000 Polartec Heat® electric blankets. The recalled blankets are style numbers 73176, 73197 and 73198.
2002-02-05 03:25:19 TiVo analyzes your Super Bowl viewing habits (articles,news) (rejected)
I've seen many other people complain about the same thing... submit a story, watch it get rejected ASAP, see it posted the next day. Happened to me twice now. Guess it really isn't worth submitting a story.
The most interesting thing I got out of this article was near the end. They mention that the 8086 was Intel's "backup plan" twenty years ago and that it was designed in THREE WEEKS! I think we finally have an explanation for why the instruction set is such a pain to work with.
55 kGray = 5500 kilorad.
Radiation-hardened ICs can withstand "only" 300 kilorad .
Think it's safe to send your consumer-grade electronics through the mail?
The radiation level that the USPS is testing now (and maybe has in production already) is so high that even radiation-hardened microchips (for space and defense systems) cannot withstand it. Also, some packages have been reportedly catching on fire because of the high radiation levels.
We have three native Polish speakers in my office. I asked one of them to translate the professor's reply. She said the gist of it is that he was upset they released his name, he didn't authorize any information release, etc. Apparently didn't deny or confirm the truth of the information but said something about having "more important things in my career" or something like that (not verbatim quote).
check out the "encoder" link at http://www.seattlerobotics.org They were very helpful for robotics projects using PIC and 68xx uCs.