Truthfully, I'm surprised that advertisement as a TV revenue stream didn't fail decades ago1
Actually I'm thinking of the urban leagond of RC cola. According to rumor, RC (Royal Crown) cola was at one time more popular then Coke or Pepsi. According to the story... RC thought that advertising by that point was pointless and decided to stop for the most part. Again, this is a urban legond... so I don't know the truth... but according to the story... without advertising, people kinda stoped buying RC cola.
Now... I don't know if this is true or not... I typicaly don't buy Coke nor Pepsi. There was a time I bought RC cola or Jolt when I could find it, but those days are long past. So when I see a cola comercial, at best I might be mildly amused... but i'm not likely to think "wow, a cola sounds really good right now".
I'm sure you've all heard of the Speakeasy... I first heard about them not because of their internet access but rather their net cafe that popped up in the mid 1990's.
Thier pricing structure was as follows....
$1.00 for physical terminal access... $1.00 gives you the daily password.
$20.00 a month gave you dialup access.... and free dumb terminal access
More moolah for x-terminal access
In all fairness.... they made MORE money from their internet access then their cafe. But such is life... I believe the cafe helped to promte their service, rather then the reverse as intended.
This was back when they had to pay for premium lines.
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Alternativly speaking... I setup one cafe in a similar way to what you did... as in laptop based internet access via wired ethernet. 16 ports and a $5.00 fee for the jacking in.
Router with port 25 blocked.... And that's it.
Access was $5.00.... $3.00 with purchace, limited to 15min depending on demand.
I proposed a monthly fee for free access and an e-mail account, but they didn't want to bother, pointing people to hotmail did the trick.
Not sure if the place is still alive and kicking.. but considering it was just base DSL access... we're talking only a $50 a month charge to get people into the cafe to buy some coffee.
one of the chief functions of a computer case is to restrict stray electromagnetic fields.... If it's all made out of plexiglas.... wouldn't this end up doing something like, say, causing all your sperm to mutate?
Someone else already pointed it it's so you don't muck with other shit.
As far as keeping it "cool" and "clear" glass looking... all one has to do is shield it... so RF get shot to ground and not your neighbors TV.
It's hard to say whether this is an issue realisticly. (America centric) As in it' won't be a class A or class B approved and can't be sold with those stickers on it (/america centric). This is only an issue with electronic devices sold, eithout even a powersupply, it in it self is hardly an electronic device. I think most people I know have cable television, a few have dish, the very few who are too cheep to get cable typicaly have it anyway from a prior install and on't pay for it.
Can't one accomplish this with some form of fine mesh screen? Something thin enough to be transparent, but still serve the fuction of shielding?
It's proprietary, but wouldn't PDF fit your description?
Not really... Assuming we're talking about the true blue ADOBE software I mean yea you can sorta scan something in as graphical information rather then require fonts... but something tends to bitch along the way and the end result gets fucked with.... pretty consistent cropping
Also, near as I am aware... you can't scan directly from a twain package into a PDF... not in any sorta meaningful one or two touch sorta way.
What we need...
*1. A scanner engine... could be Twain / Sane complient, but a replacement for the Twain software that comes with your typical scanner. This way we don't have to put up with the software supplied by the nice folks who made the scanner.
2. Graphical format that will be specific as to DPI and size... and specificly NOT FUCK WITH IT when printing.
3. Standard reader at the other end... efax for example is pretty good about this sorta thing. You recieve the fax, and have the option of printing hardcopy.
4. Printer driver that will give you the ability to encode in this format, and query you as to where it's going... true fax xxx-xxxx (phone) or e-mail fax bob@whatever.com. I know there are printer drivers that will print to a tiff for example, but i've not seen anything so advanced yet.
If you had something simple that could do all of the above, that would kick ass.
When is the last time you just typed up an email address on the computer, slapped your document on the scanner, pushed a button, and everything worked flawlessly without any intervention.
The problem isn't my end... it's the other side typicaly. Using the lastest all in one units under the microsoft platform... I can indeed do 3 step scan to e-mail without problem. In my case I press "scan" to PC... pull down the sento "e-mail" and it gets sent off NO problem. You can for example have a really cool scanner, but be stuck with either a lame TWAIN package, or no support under your OS, even if you're running Windows.
It's cool and all there is a protocal to communicate with 3rd party software (TWAIN) to get scanned information. It's not cool there are really NO standards for talking with scanners.... and you really can't hope to get anything better.
The pain in the tookus is that typicaly these scan engines automaticly assume it's a jpg.. or another popular format that doesn't include stuff like size... If it's too big for your printer, as in if if there is data outside your printable area, it doesn't seem to want to try to get it right, it automatcly truncates a good 1/4 inch somewhere along the chain. I've had NO problems with efax, but that's pretty much just a windows thing near as I can remember.
So... what we need is a good format for e-mail transport of fax data, one which will include information like "it's 8.5 / 11, just print it don't fuck with it". Something other then EFAX that is.
As far as a linux project is concerned, I can easily see this being a branch of the SANE project. What office doesn't need a fax in one way or another after all?
I own a HP PSC 950, and a friends folks just got given a new dell with that free all and one printer.
In exchange for their old tube amp, I offered to get them online. The amp isn't worth that much but they didn't need much help. They needed someone to show them how to make coppies.
"press black copy for a black one.. color copy for a color one.... system must be on, it'll take a sec, youc an watch the blinking lights".
I took it one step further and showed the the scan button.
"Press scan.. it'll have a pop up, pull down what you want to do with it... fax / e-mail / save... and go with it".
Given that these are people who would own a tube amp they remember buying new in the 50's.... and they managed to figure out how to scan something to e-mail on their new Dell.... there is NO excuse for using fax.
Now if they would actually update fax machines to faster then 14.4... I would say... if you're dialup... might as well use the fax... they they are not, so fax can bite me.
All the other end will receieve it page after page of black printout. It might be an urban legend but apparently there was one type of fax machine that would overheat and catch fire if this was done to it
I'm not sure if this is an urban legend.... or took place in reality.
I'm thinking the old thermal paper fax machines where the paper came on a roll, and physicaly cut when it reached the end of page.
I'm not sure if any of those units are left in service.... the last one I know of was when a friend of mine was ordering a 486 laptop, back when an active matrix 486 cost $4000 or so. Didnt have a Credit Card so had to pay COD / Moneyorder. The company asked for a fax of the money order before they would ship out a machine who's value was over $2000... which was most reasonable. Having only a logitech hand scanner and a smart one 14.4, he proceded to scan it in. Being thoughtful he scanned it in at high resolution, which i'm sure was somewhere between 200 and 400dpi...
Well, fax being fax, I believe 72dpi... did it's job perfectly, and printed the fax at a 1:1 ratio. They phoned bax and said, "We got your fax... we can see your money order, it's six feet long)... we'll send it out today, don't fax us again".
As far as an old thermal faxes catching fire.. I believe this is very possible. That termal paper based on my experiments ignighted at about 400F in my oven, where standard paper required required a 450setting.
Will this happen in the 21st century? Probally not. What would be more likely to happen is they would run out of ink if they are on paper fax, and at $30 a pop this is no small potatoes.
As soon as you get government involved, OS becomes political, and influenced by political forces....In other news... the Goverment hit the mandated shutdown button for all Apache servers in Iraq as part of the war effort. GW Bush has said "We supported the software with our money, we have every right to shut down all communications of any nation we are at war with". Iraq officals in responce to this shutdown by buying copies of SCO. "Comercial products have no political influence, they just want money."
According to a penquin in the street, "Stop that, it's silly".
(OT) I can't remember exactly where I got access to the blink codes for my car. I'm sure the link trail started from www.sentra.net for my car. Basicly any website dealing with your car would either have that info posted, or people who know a link to where it is posted.
http://www.troublecodes.net/mazda/ no. I'm too lazy to look for you but it looks promising. They list the codes, but also say you need a part to read the numbers, where as my nissan has a blinking light.
This is usually what autoshops automaticly charge a nominal fee for, though i'm sure they have more universial connections then a specalized two digit readout.
The owner's manual for my car, (a 98 Mazda 626) doesn't tell you squat except that "you should take it to a service center as soon as possble."
Yea, that was annoying... I haven't had the engine light activate in my vehicel, so i've not actually gone through the steps. I just know where the switch is to cause the light to blink in a code.
I still have to check my manual to see if it uses multi-colored lights for the check engine light.
Uh... dude.. the check engine light is color-coded. If it's yellow or orange
None too helpful for the color blind
If it's RED
It's possible I wouldn't notice, unless I spent some time ahead of time and established what their yellow, orange, or red is, assuming there was enough contrast between the three levels. I remember that the Amiga had dual color LEDs if i'm remembering correctly. I remember this not because I actually could see the contrast between the two colors, but because I noticed the three wires, and had someone else tell me they were diffrent colors.
red and starts BLINKING
Now that's what i'm talking about. Personaly I would prefer it if they followed the same sorta convention for street signs. Green triangle, yellow diamond, red octagon. In my case, I can't see the contrast. As it is an idiot light, and everyone else is an idiot, most people understand red octagon. (Actually I can't remember if the stopsign is an octagon, i'll count the sides the next time I stop).
Honest to god... if you don't know how your check engine light works, you need to spend a little more time with TFM
Thanks for pointing this out. I was unaware of the color contrasting check engine light. I'll have to read up on that tonight... and see if I can possibly modify it to a more me friendly system if there isn't enough contrast. It's not so much that I never read my car manual, I only read the segments regarding the hidden blinking light rather then anything regarding the check engine light. In otherwords, I assumed they were just idiot lights and didn't tell you anything useful.
Likely, the system extracts the error codes and sends them to an operator who takes their presence in context with what the car was doing when the lite came on. Unless you are familiar with modern engine control systems, you're gonna need someone to tell you if it's bad or really bad.
The funny thing is... even if you are familar with modern engine codes... there is no way to determine whether or not if it's bad or really bad via remote. As with any sorta logic system... it can only communicate bad, or good. So it's either a sensor or a thingie. Based on my experence, the check engine light doesn't ever communicate really bad, only preventive maintance nessicary. I.e. it can report a misfire in one of your cylinders, there is no way an ONSTAR person can judge whether it's your plug, your wire, distributer, or busted rod. There is really no sensor for REALLY BAD.
The Sentra isn't a geekable enough car for ya? Lol... and I thought it was the fasion for geeks to own cars worth less then their computers. I freely admit i'm a cheep bastard, and typicaly speaking I would vote for a Toyota (Corola / Camry) or Suburu (WRX). I selected the sentra for one reason... it uses a timing chain rather then a belt. In other words, Toyota or Honda's have this magical recouring charge every 50,000 miles or so. The Sentra does not.. to me means one less thing to fuck with during it's life.
...or you can just pay the $30 a month and be done with it. Which is what you're gonna have to do if you wire a cell phone and pager up to the thing anyway
Well, onstar at $30 a month is spiffy. Such a system that would use a 3rd party cell phone might cost $20 a month minium (american centric) unless
#1: If you pigtail a 2nd phone on your service #2: Pay as you go plan #3: disconnected mobile phone, connect to service if and when your car is stolen #4: 2way pagers are cheeper still #5: disconnected mobiles can call 911, (airbag, phone 911, automated message)
Yes, disconnected cell phones can make 911 calls, but hacking the car to tell the phone it's been stolen/in a wreck/etc.
Dear car... You have been stolen. Please tell me your location so I may find you. I would call this C54WAR protocal {car 54 where are you}
No better nor worse then ONSTAR.
will almost certainly void the warranty on any electrical components and probably need to interfere with the diagnostic computers
Hooking up a relay to your door locks... I'd agree this is possible to void the warrenty. But hooking up a mobile phone to your car... I doubt it. 3rd party stereos typicaly don't void the warrenty, even truck mount CD players.
In the end, if you can afford a new car with OnStar, you can probably afford $400 a year for the service
It's not a question of whether you can afford it or not. The world is filled with many goods and services costing about $20-$30 bucks. If you can afford a new car, i'm sure this can fit into your budget, it's more of a question whether or not you want to pay a recouring monthly fee, or invest it in something that has no recouring cost. $400 a year over a period of 5 years = $2000.
So... you can either go onstar, or save your pennies and have a nice down payment on a replacement car... a downpayment that represents 5%-10% of it's value. It's not a question of afford, it should be a valued choice what to do with your funds. I'm not saying ONSTAR is foolish... it's a cool service. But there are good reasons why the cheep bastard might go with something with a lesser cost.
I like On-Star for when my "check engine" light comes on, I press the button, they run a remote diagnostic on my engine's computer, and can tell me how serious the problem is and can call me a tow truck if needed
Diffrent people have diffrent skill levels when it comes to automobiles. I for example have a 1998 sentra, so nothing like onstar, but I do have a CHECK ENGINE light as well. Diffrence is, I know where my access port is, and it blinks the engine code. I'd suspect that's all ONSTAR does for ya, rather then running remote diagnostics, they run local diagnostics and read to you what your engine is telling you.
I like OnStar for being able to unlock my car when I lock my keys in the car
Ok, that is a cool feature. That is actually more spiffy then calling a locksmith. From what I read, the mod is only for reading GPS info to a 3rd party device. I don't know if that would affect the other onstar fuctions. I don't feel that ONSTAR is offering you anything special there... as in you could easily invest in a old pager and attach the vibrate motor to a relay which would open the doors upon calling it's number. I'm sure you could get into the more advanced logic, requiring a specific code.
I like OnStar for being able to track, and stop my car if it is stolen.
Righto... that too is a cool feature! In theory this can be done with any old cell phone wired into your automobile, in theory that is. Getting the police to track down your stolen cellphone is a difficult enough task in it self. I've not actually been able to do this, dispite the fact that they have access to the technology... and the authorization from the owner. When i've talked to cops about it, they've said "we can't do it" or "we don't know how". If the phone were to call 911 if stolen... and relay an automated message "help me, i'm a car, this isn't my driver", this might work.
I should actually research the issue and see the difficulty level in the following
#1: Added cost of an additional mobile phone
#2: Small system who's job it is reading GPS info, sending that info via an easily readable text message or other remote computer readable format.
#3: Relay that info to a site where a human can make the valued judgement of transmiting that info to police or whowever.
That's worth the OnStar subscription...
Hey.... that's cool and fine. ONSTAR(tm) offers a valuable marketable service that is perfectly spiffy. I would never knock anyone who wanted that form of service. I will agree with the hackers that it's cool to beable to mod your ONSTAR(tm) box to read the GPS info to a 3rd party device.
What would be cooler IMHO would be a slightly more subscription free solution, where by you give your car a phone, and have the logic to beable to be flaged as being "stolen" and relay it's location to someone.
I'm not about to dismiss the geek value of this, far from it. Never the less... It seems to me based on what I read all you are doing is modifying the onstar usin so your 3rd party device can get the GPS information, rather then it sent to ONSTAR(tm). Such a mod requires you to have a vehicel with the onstar device, and some basic soldering skill.
Now... assuming you don't actually own a vehicel with the ONSTAR(tm) system onboard... is there something special about it's gps reciever that would make it worthy to find one at a junk yard and purchace one? Rather then buying your own GPS reciever, laptop, and load in the approperate maping software for your enjoyment and pleasure?
I too am in favor of the e-bay solution. Not only did the parents make valid points on hard to find parts, but there is sometimes software / hardware that just doesn't run well on faster systems. Sloppy programing i'd imagine, taking the time from the cpu clock. Not to speak of some older ISA hardware that just won't play well on anything modern. Specificly...
1. E-prom programers... some people invested good money in a prom burner.... and why spend all that money again when you can just use a lame PC.
2. Obscure interfaces.... I know that I have a non scsi scanner which requires an isa card to operate.
3. Propriority TTL devices... often i've seen people use the printer port for TTL communications. In my experence, old motorola pagers are a good example of something that needs TTL logic.
4. MFM / RLL / ESDI / some tape drives (qic-02 / qic-36 )... The last motherboard I had that took ISA slots was an asus p3v4x and it didn't take too kindly to the ESDI controler I had, nor the qic-02 controler. I've had to borrow an older system to pull the data from some of my older disks / tapes.
5. Voicemail systems. Many a small buisiness were sold into a voicemail system that pretty much was a 386 / 486 class machine, with some 3rd party software and hardware that works perfectly, well, till the fans or disk give out.
In short... there is still a logical application for ye-old 386, though few and far between. Some bugger on e-bay might actually need a lame machine for a lame task when the cost to upgrade to something new is too out of bounds.
Wavelenth issue? As in better manual focus lenses have an infrared mark on them that basicly you focus normal, and step it back a notch for IR to be in focus. Whether or not the human eye much focus diffrently for objects closer up showing diffrent wavelenghs is beyond me.
I do know that in order to detect red from green I see the effect of the surrounding, as in green reflects more light then red does... as in green leds are annoying cause they make the whole room bright... but the red ones do not.
Being color blind, i've studdied this quite a bit. I find that i'm fond of purple text rather then blue dispite the total lack of contrast between the two. I'm the one who made purple british flags in gradeschool didn't understand what I was doing wrong. Stupid unlabled markers. Red text on black is my worst color combo, can't see the contrast usually.
I find i'm better with blues then others, but never the less, i'm familar with this lack of focus esp when the blue is on contrasting background, yellow/green/red. I know on my old amiga... my text colors were hard for others to see, as I picked what I considered to be high contrast in my eyes... blue / black / green. No other bugger could read the blue I picked.
I was discussing this with my nephew the other day. Basicly because one of the primary reasons that fat was so cool(sic) was the fact that everyone and their neighbor could use it. If you had a mac, amiga, atari-st, or even a word processor, all of them could do fat cause it's what was popular.
Better exists, but FAT was where it's at as far as intraoperability.
I still have alot of stuff on FAT, dispite the fact that I was not using microsoft for a signifigent period of time. Any bugger can read FAT. Hell, I haven't seen a floppy disk sold recently that wasn't preformated fat.
If this indeed is microsoft's IP, I think they are doing us a favor by charging for it. It's not like there are not alternatives.
Wahl professional clipper, which costs about $140 retail.
I also have one of those... I first had the pet trimmer model as they don't retail for $140 but are exactly the same thing. I lent it to a friend, who was nice enough to use vegatable oil to lubercate, as he was more hairy then my self and needed serious cutage. Needless to say the vegi oil killed it. The replacement was a true human wahl with the extra heads as well as the sliding hair depth gadge. I have those streches of time when I don't have to deal with humans where I just don't shave. I'd say two days without shaving for me is like a 6 0'clock shadow for most people, but never the less, I break out the Wahl after a week without shaving. Otherwise, it's just to get rid of my head hair below the ears.
Brauns and Norelcos and Remingtons don't really work at all for some guys. And they sure as hell don't last 3-5 years or more for us.
I totally understand. I found the Braun worked best for me, infact I've had two. One an older one needs a new screen, and I haven't bothered hunting around the net for one. In the past I got them from jc pennies. I went with a Norelco just because the local drug store carries the parts. I must say that the Braun seems to work better on fine hair then my the Norelco.
While I had good luck with Braun, there was a cheeper brand that looked attractive to me because it was a wet / dry. But because I push the head close to my face to get a close shave, the metal would crack. Still, I think the more hairy people might get away with using a wahl first, followed by a Norelco.
It actually makes me happy i'm not all that hairy.
But I use a straight razor. Disposable razors are inadequate for me
I've always wanted to get into a straight razor actually at least for my major face parts. I'd feel uncomfortable with it tward my neck and jaw line.
What I really enjoyed rather then a physical blade were those replacable razors, as in you unscrew the bottom shaft and the head opens up and you pop in a razor. But for the life of me, I can't find those local. It's much easier finding disposable safty heads for your generic style or your current latest super duper models (Sensor / Mach 3).
What I find most annoying is there was an older model disposable head razor I had.. Atra perhaps it was called, but costco doesn't carry anything but Sensor or mach 3 heads. Dual blade with soap strip. I was pretty happy with the cost / peformance ratio.
Worst was something I think it was called wreckless sword, or something similar.
I do feel a bit dumb about my $50 electric razor. That's maybe a different caliber of dumb.
You know.... I personaly would never call someone dumb for buying a $50.00 electric razor.
It's been a while since I priced razor blades, due to the fact that I have a happening $50.00 electric razor, and my safty razor needs are currently accomplished by the free "mach 3"s I get in the mail on a regular basis. My last one has been in use for about 3 years. If I was going with a mach 3... I believe $15.00 per 12 count box is a good deal.. so roughly 1.25 each. Assuming you throw them out weekly that's $65 a year. I'm actually not a hairy guy... so it's more like 2 weeks for me... so $40.00 a year on mach3s
$50.00 for 3 years of shaving enjoyment, and once and a while with a free mach 3 turbo if I feel the need to look extra spiffy isn't dumb at all, it's actually pretty damn cost effective.
Plus the bonus if i'm late, I can shave while in rush hour traffic... it's not like I need to pay attention to the road or anything.
A small streem + Car alternator = power. The last one I purchaced with an internal regular was rated for 65amps... I'm not sure what rpm would = 65amps, but i'm thinking that you could probally generate a good 2-5amps with a paddle wheel of some sort of DC power with a minimal flow river.
My battery died at a rest area in oregon once, just a bit north of ashland, I fell asleep with the lines on. I was able dismount my alternator (internal rectifier), strap on some painting sticks with duct tape (one pair at two feet in lenth * 5 spokes), and with my jumper cables I plaed the thing by the local streem in in about 8 hours I had power, enough to start my car.
Is Gasoline costly, vs power directly from the grid? Not to put to fine a point on it, but based on my observations.... the fuel bill for something like fuel oil, which is diecel #2 floats at $1.50 a gal... and is also on par with what I use, propane heat also at about $1.50 a gal.
I burn roughly 100 gal a year at a cost of $150 for heat and stove. While I don't have an accurate price estimate of what I was consuming with electrisity for the heaters... but needless to say it was a hell of alot more then $12.50 a month average. Friends I know have oil heat burn a similar amount.
I don't have much in the way of experence with generating electristy with a gas (petrol, diecel, propane/methaine) powered generator, but based under the assumption that it's cheeper to heat via gas... depending on how efficent the generator is it might actually cost less to heat by gas.
I had planed to research this for friends / family who live back east, where the cost of electric is extraordenary and depend on AC in the summer to not cook.
Um... all I did was splice the wires from the tapedrive directly into the handset of the bell telephone I had at the time. Not the princess style, but the type that would actually fit on an acustic modem. I also used the input on my cassette and earphone output so I could get the line levels correct, i.e. using the tape player as a small amp, but actually reducing the the volume level. As you could hear your self in the ear piece, it wasn't all that hard to play it by ear so to speak.
I've been told in the past that playing music over my phone that I somehow managed to get a quality no one else did. Mono only, but acceptable enough for a local top 40 station to rebroadcast material I fed to them, at 4am mind you but still. Also I set my modem to answer and hangup quickly and called the sound effect sugarfoot.
It's not like this was such an odd practice. In some mags at the time, there were radio stations who broadcast programs on the airwaves and expected people to actually pickup the copy of prog on their combo radio/tape deck.
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Truthfully, I'm surprised that advertisement as a TV revenue stream didn't fail decades ago1
Actually I'm thinking of the urban leagond of RC cola. According to rumor, RC (Royal Crown) cola was at one time more popular then Coke or Pepsi. According to the story... RC thought that advertising by that point was pointless and decided to stop for the most part. Again, this is a urban legond... so I don't know the truth... but according to the story... without advertising, people kinda stoped buying RC cola.
Now... I don't know if this is true or not... I typicaly don't buy Coke nor Pepsi. There was a time I bought RC cola or Jolt when I could find it, but those days are long past. So when I see a cola comercial, at best I might be mildly amused... but i'm not likely to think "wow, a cola sounds really good right now".
I'm sure you've all heard of the Speakeasy... I first heard about them not because of their internet access but rather their net cafe that popped up in the mid 1990's.
Thier pricing structure was as follows....
$1.00 for physical terminal access... $1.00 gives you the daily password.
$20.00 a month gave you dialup access.... and free dumb terminal access
More moolah for x-terminal access
In all fairness.... they made MORE money from their internet access then their cafe. But such is life... I believe the cafe helped to promte their service, rather then the reverse as intended.
This was back when they had to pay for premium lines.
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Alternativly speaking... I setup one cafe in a similar way to what you did... as in laptop based internet access via wired ethernet. 16 ports and a $5.00 fee for the jacking in.
Router with port 25 blocked....
And that's it.
Access was $5.00.... $3.00 with purchace, limited to 15min depending on demand.
I proposed a monthly fee for free access and an e-mail account, but they didn't want to bother, pointing people to hotmail did the trick.
Not sure if the place is still alive and kicking.. but considering it was just base DSL access... we're talking only a $50 a month charge to get people into the cafe to buy some coffee.
one of the chief functions of a computer case is to restrict stray electromagnetic fields.... If it's all made out of plexiglas .... wouldn't this end up doing something like, say, causing all your sperm to mutate?
Someone else already pointed it it's so you don't muck with other shit.
As far as keeping it "cool" and "clear" glass looking... all one has to do is shield it... so RF get shot to ground and not your neighbors TV.
It's hard to say whether this is an issue realisticly. (America centric) As in it' won't be a class A or class B approved and can't be sold with those stickers on it (/america centric). This is only an issue with electronic devices sold, eithout even a powersupply, it in it self is hardly an electronic device. I think most people I know have cable television, a few have dish, the very few who are too cheep to get cable typicaly have it anyway from a prior install and on't pay for it.
Can't one accomplish this with some form of fine mesh screen? Something thin enough to be transparent, but still serve the fuction of shielding?
It's proprietary, but wouldn't PDF fit your description?
Not really... Assuming we're talking about the true blue ADOBE software I mean yea you can sorta scan something in as graphical information rather then require fonts... but something tends to bitch along the way and the end result gets fucked with.... pretty consistent cropping
Also, near as I am aware... you can't scan directly from a twain package into a PDF... not in any sorta meaningful one or two touch sorta way.
What we need...
*1. A scanner engine... could be Twain / Sane complient, but a replacement for the Twain software that comes with your typical scanner. This way we don't have to put up with the software supplied by the nice folks who made the scanner.
2. Graphical format that will be specific as to DPI and size... and specificly NOT FUCK WITH IT when printing.
3. Standard reader at the other end... efax for example is pretty good about this sorta thing. You recieve the fax, and have the option of printing hardcopy.
4. Printer driver that will give you the ability to encode in this format, and query you as to where it's going... true fax xxx-xxxx (phone) or e-mail fax bob@whatever.com. I know there are printer drivers that will print to a tiff for example, but i've not seen anything so advanced yet.
If you had something simple that could do all of the above, that would kick ass.
When is the last time you just typed up an email address on the computer, slapped your document on the scanner, pushed a button, and everything worked flawlessly without any intervention.
The problem isn't my end... it's the other side typicaly. Using the lastest all in one units under the microsoft platform... I can indeed do 3 step scan to e-mail without problem. In my case I press "scan" to PC... pull down the sento "e-mail" and it gets sent off NO problem. You can for example have a really cool scanner, but be stuck with either a lame TWAIN package, or no support under your OS, even if you're running Windows.
It's cool and all there is a protocal to communicate with 3rd party software (TWAIN) to get scanned information. It's not cool there are really NO standards for talking with scanners.... and you really can't hope to get anything better.
The pain in the tookus is that typicaly these scan engines automaticly assume it's a jpg.. or another popular format that doesn't include stuff like size... If it's too big for your printer, as in if if there is data outside your printable area, it doesn't seem to want to try to get it right, it automatcly truncates a good 1/4 inch somewhere along the chain. I've had NO problems with efax, but that's pretty much just a windows thing near as I can remember.
So... what we need is a good format for e-mail transport of fax data, one which will include information like "it's 8.5 / 11, just print it don't fuck with it". Something other then EFAX that is.
As far as a linux project is concerned, I can easily see this being a branch of the SANE project. What office doesn't need a fax in one way or another after all?
I trully don't understand the difficulty...
I own a HP PSC 950, and a friends folks just got given a new dell with that free all and one printer.
In exchange for their old tube amp, I offered to get them online. The amp isn't worth that much but they didn't need much help. They needed someone to show them how to make coppies.
"press black copy for a black one.. color copy for a color one.... system must be on, it'll take a sec, youc an watch the blinking lights".
I took it one step further and showed the the scan button.
"Press scan.. it'll have a pop up, pull down what you want to do with it... fax / e-mail / save... and go with it".
Given that these are people who would own a tube amp they remember buying new in the 50's.... and they managed to figure out how to scan something to e-mail on their new Dell.... there is NO excuse for using fax.
Now if they would actually update fax machines to faster then 14.4... I would say... if you're dialup... might as well use the fax... they they are not, so fax can bite me.
All the other end will receieve it page after page of black printout. It might be an urban legend but apparently there was one type of fax machine that would overheat and catch fire if this was done to it
I'm not sure if this is an urban legend.... or took place in reality.
I'm thinking the old thermal paper fax machines where the paper came on a roll, and physicaly cut when it reached the end of page.
I'm not sure if any of those units are left in service.... the last one I know of was when a friend of mine was ordering a 486 laptop, back when an active matrix 486 cost $4000 or so. Didnt have a Credit Card so had to pay COD / Moneyorder. The company asked for a fax of the money order before they would ship out a machine who's value was over $2000... which was most reasonable. Having only a logitech hand scanner and a smart one 14.4, he proceded to scan it in. Being thoughtful he scanned it in at high resolution, which i'm sure was somewhere between 200 and 400dpi...
Well, fax being fax, I believe 72dpi... did it's job perfectly, and printed the fax at a 1:1 ratio. They phoned bax and said, "We got your fax... we can see your money order, it's six feet long)... we'll send it out today, don't fax us again".
As far as an old thermal faxes catching fire.. I believe this is very possible. That termal paper based on my experiments ignighted at about 400F in my oven, where standard paper required required a 450setting.
Will this happen in the 21st century? Probally not. What would be more likely to happen is they would run out of ink if they are on paper fax, and at $30 a pop this is no small potatoes.
As soon as you get government involved, OS becomes political, and influenced by political forces ....In other news... the Goverment hit the mandated shutdown button for all Apache servers in Iraq as part of the war effort. GW Bush has said "We supported the software with our money, we have every right to shut down all communications of any nation we are at war with". Iraq officals in responce to this shutdown by buying copies of SCO. "Comercial products have no political influence, they just want money."
According to a penquin in the street, "Stop that, it's silly".
(OT) I can't remember exactly where I got access to the blink codes for my car. I'm sure the link trail started from www.sentra.net for my car. Basicly any website dealing with your car would either have that info posted, or people who know a link to where it is posted.
http://www.troublecodes.net/mazda/ no. I'm too lazy to look for you but it looks promising. They list the codes, but also say you need a part to read the numbers, where as my nissan has a blinking light.
This is usually what autoshops automaticly charge a nominal fee for, though i'm sure they have more universial connections then a specalized two digit readout.
The owner's manual for my car, (a 98 Mazda 626) doesn't tell you squat except that "you should take it to a service center as soon as possble."
Yea, that was annoying... I haven't had the engine light activate in my vehicel, so i've not actually gone through the steps. I just know where the switch is to cause the light to blink in a code.
I still have to check my manual to see if it uses multi-colored lights for the check engine light.
You just argue for the hell of it, eh?
When we're talking color codes for something important, oh yea it irks me... colors and shapes.
Uh... dude.. the check engine light is color-coded. If it's yellow or orange
None too helpful for the color blind
If it's RED
It's possible I wouldn't notice, unless I spent some time ahead of time and established what their yellow, orange, or red is, assuming there was enough contrast between the three levels. I remember that the Amiga had dual color LEDs if i'm remembering correctly. I remember this not because I actually could see the contrast between the two colors, but because I noticed the three wires, and had someone else tell me they were diffrent colors.
red and starts BLINKING
Now that's what i'm talking about. Personaly I would prefer it if they followed the same sorta convention for street signs. Green triangle, yellow diamond, red octagon. In my case, I can't see the contrast. As it is an idiot light, and everyone else is an idiot, most people understand red octagon. (Actually I can't remember if the stopsign is an octagon, i'll count the sides the next time I stop).
Honest to god... if you don't know how your check engine light works, you need to spend a little more time with TFM
Thanks for pointing this out. I was unaware of the color contrasting check engine light. I'll have to read up on that tonight... and see if I can possibly modify it to a more me friendly system if there isn't enough contrast. It's not so much that I never read my car manual, I only read the segments regarding the hidden blinking light rather then anything regarding the check engine light. In otherwords, I assumed they were just idiot lights and didn't tell you anything useful.
Likely, the system extracts the error codes and sends them to an operator who takes their presence in context with what the car was doing when the lite came on. Unless you are familiar with modern engine control systems, you're gonna need someone to tell you if it's bad or really bad.
The funny thing is... even if you are familar with modern engine codes... there is no way to determine whether or not if it's bad or really bad via remote. As with any sorta logic system... it can only communicate bad, or good. So it's either a sensor or a thingie. Based on my experence, the check engine light doesn't ever communicate really bad, only preventive maintance nessicary. I.e. it can report a misfire in one of your cylinders, there is no way an ONSTAR person can judge whether it's your plug, your wire, distributer, or busted rod. There is really no sensor for REALLY BAD.
> I for example have a 1998 sentra
>> BZZZZZZT... next.
The Sentra isn't a geekable enough car for ya? Lol... and I thought it was the fasion for geeks to own cars worth less then their computers. I freely admit i'm a cheep bastard, and typicaly speaking I would vote for a Toyota (Corola / Camry) or Suburu (WRX). I selected the sentra for one reason... it uses a timing chain rather then a belt. In other words, Toyota or Honda's have this magical recouring charge every 50,000 miles or so. The Sentra does not.. to me means one less thing to fuck with during it's life.
Well, onstar at $30 a month is spiffy. Such a system that would use a 3rd party cell phone might cost $20 a month minium (american centric) unless
#1: If you pigtail a 2nd phone on your service
#2: Pay as you go plan
#3: disconnected mobile phone, connect to service if and when your car is stolen
#4: 2way pagers are cheeper still
#5: disconnected mobiles can call 911, (airbag, phone 911, automated message)
Yes, disconnected cell phones can make 911 calls, but hacking the car to tell the phone it's been stolen/in a wreck/etc.
Dear car... You have been stolen. Please tell me your location so I may find you. I would call this C54WAR protocal {car 54 where are you}
No better nor worse then ONSTAR.
will almost certainly void the warranty on any electrical components and probably need to interfere with the diagnostic computers
Hooking up a relay to your door locks... I'd agree this is possible to void the warrenty. But hooking up a mobile phone to your car... I doubt it. 3rd party stereos typicaly don't void the warrenty, even truck mount CD players.
In the end, if you can afford a new car with OnStar, you can probably afford $400 a year for the service
It's not a question of whether you can afford it or not. The world is filled with many goods and services costing about $20-$30 bucks. If you can afford a new car, i'm sure this can fit into your budget, it's more of a question whether or not you want to pay a recouring monthly fee, or invest it in something that has no recouring cost. $400 a year over a period of 5 years = $2000.
So... you can either go onstar, or save your pennies and have a nice down payment on a replacement car... a downpayment that represents 5%-10% of it's value. It's not a question of afford, it should be a valued choice what to do with your funds. I'm not saying ONSTAR is foolish... it's a cool service. But there are good reasons why the cheep bastard might go with something with a lesser cost.
I like On-Star for when my "check engine" light comes on, I press the button, they run a remote diagnostic on my engine's computer, and can tell me how serious the problem is and can call me a tow truck if needed
Diffrent people have diffrent skill levels when it comes to automobiles. I for example have a 1998 sentra, so nothing like onstar, but I do have a CHECK ENGINE light as well. Diffrence is, I know where my access port is, and it blinks the engine code. I'd suspect that's all ONSTAR does for ya, rather then running remote diagnostics, they run local diagnostics and read to you what your engine is telling you.
I like OnStar for being able to unlock my car when I lock my keys in the car
Ok, that is a cool feature. That is actually more spiffy then calling a locksmith. From what I read, the mod is only for reading GPS info to a 3rd party device. I don't know if that would affect the other onstar fuctions. I don't feel that ONSTAR is offering you anything special there... as in you could easily invest in a old pager and attach the vibrate motor to a relay which would open the doors upon calling it's number. I'm sure you could get into the more advanced logic, requiring a specific code.
I like OnStar for being able to track, and stop my car if it is stolen.
Righto... that too is a cool feature! In theory this can be done with any old cell phone wired into your automobile, in theory that is. Getting the police to track down your stolen cellphone is a difficult enough task in it self. I've not actually been able to do this, dispite the fact that they have access to the technology... and the authorization from the owner. When i've talked to cops about it, they've said "we can't do it" or "we don't know how". If the phone were to call 911 if stolen... and relay an automated message "help me, i'm a car, this isn't my driver", this might work.
I should actually research the issue and see the difficulty level in the following
#1: Added cost of an additional mobile phone
#2: Small system who's job it is reading GPS info, sending that info via an easily readable text message or other remote computer readable format.
#3: Relay that info to a site where a human can make the valued judgement of transmiting that info to police or whowever.
That's worth the OnStar subscription...
Hey.... that's cool and fine. ONSTAR(tm) offers a valuable marketable service that is perfectly spiffy. I would never knock anyone who wanted that form of service. I will agree with the hackers that it's cool to beable to mod your ONSTAR(tm) box to read the GPS info to a 3rd party device.
What would be cooler IMHO would be a slightly more subscription free solution, where by you give your car a phone, and have the logic to beable to be flaged as being "stolen" and relay it's location to someone.
I'm not about to dismiss the geek value of this, far from it. Never the less... It seems to me based on what I read all you are doing is modifying the onstar usin so your 3rd party device can get the GPS information, rather then it sent to ONSTAR(tm). Such a mod requires you to have a vehicel with the onstar device, and some basic soldering skill.
Now... assuming you don't actually own a vehicel with the ONSTAR(tm) system onboard... is there something special about it's gps reciever that would make it worthy to find one at a junk yard and purchace one? Rather then buying your own GPS reciever, laptop, and load in the approperate maping software for your enjoyment and pleasure?
I second the eBay recommendation
... The last motherboard I had that took ISA slots was an asus p3v4x and it didn't take too kindly to the ESDI controler I had, nor the qic-02 controler. I've had to borrow an older system to pull the data from some of my older disks / tapes.
I too am in favor of the e-bay solution. Not only did the parents make valid points on hard to find parts, but there is sometimes software / hardware that just doesn't run well on faster systems. Sloppy programing i'd imagine, taking the time from the cpu clock. Not to speak of some older ISA hardware that just won't play well on anything modern. Specificly...
1. E-prom programers... some people invested good money in a prom burner.... and why spend all that money again when you can just use a lame PC.
2. Obscure interfaces.... I know that I have a non scsi scanner which requires an isa card to operate.
3. Propriority TTL devices... often i've seen people use the printer port for TTL communications. In my experence, old motorola pagers are a good example of something that needs TTL logic.
4. MFM / RLL / ESDI / some tape drives (qic-02 / qic-36 )
5. Voicemail systems. Many a small buisiness were sold into a voicemail system that pretty much was a 386 / 486 class machine, with some 3rd party software and hardware that works perfectly, well, till the fans or disk give out.
In short... there is still a logical application for ye-old 386, though few and far between. Some bugger on e-bay might actually need a lame machine for a lame task when the cost to upgrade to something new is too out of bounds.
Wavelenth issue? As in better manual focus lenses have an infrared mark on them that basicly you focus normal, and step it back a notch for IR to be in focus. Whether or not the human eye much focus diffrently for objects closer up showing diffrent wavelenghs is beyond me.
I do know that in order to detect red from green I see the effect of the surrounding, as in green reflects more light then red does... as in green leds are annoying cause they make the whole room bright... but the red ones do not.
Being color blind, i've studdied this quite a bit. I find that i'm fond of purple text rather then blue dispite the total lack of contrast between the two. I'm the one who made purple british flags in gradeschool didn't understand what I was doing wrong. Stupid unlabled markers. Red text on black is my worst color combo, can't see the contrast usually.
I find i'm better with blues then others, but never the less, i'm familar with this lack of focus esp when the blue is on contrasting background, yellow/green/red. I know on my old amiga... my text colors were hard for others to see, as I picked what I considered to be high contrast in my eyes... blue / black / green. No other bugger could read the blue I picked.
Or why use fat when you have iso-9660?
I was discussing this with my nephew the other day. Basicly because one of the primary reasons that fat was so cool(sic) was the fact that everyone and their neighbor could use it. If you had a mac, amiga, atari-st, or even a word processor, all of them could do fat cause it's what was popular.
Better exists, but FAT was where it's at as far as intraoperability.
I still have alot of stuff on FAT, dispite the fact that I was not using microsoft for a signifigent period of time. Any bugger can read FAT. Hell, I haven't seen a floppy disk sold recently that wasn't preformated fat.
If this indeed is microsoft's IP, I think they are doing us a favor by charging for it. It's not like there are not alternatives.
Wahl professional clipper, which
costs about $140 retail.
I also have one of those... I first had the pet trimmer model as they don't retail for $140 but are exactly the same thing. I lent it to a friend, who was nice enough to use vegatable oil to lubercate, as he was more hairy then my self and needed serious cutage. Needless to say the vegi oil killed it. The replacement was a true human wahl with the extra heads as well as the sliding hair depth gadge. I have those streches of time when I don't have to deal with humans where I just don't shave. I'd say two days without shaving for me is like a 6 0'clock shadow for most people, but never the less, I break out the Wahl after a week without shaving. Otherwise, it's just to get rid of my head hair below the ears.
Brauns and Norelcos and Remingtons don't really work
at all for some guys. And they sure as hell don't last
3-5 years or more for us.
I totally understand. I found the Braun worked best for me, infact I've had two. One an older one needs a new screen, and I haven't bothered hunting around the net for one. In the past I got them from jc pennies. I went with a Norelco just because the local drug store carries the parts. I must say that the Braun seems to work better on fine hair then my the Norelco.
While I had good luck with Braun, there was a cheeper brand that looked attractive to me because it was a wet / dry. But because I push the head close to my face to get a close shave, the metal would crack. Still, I think the more hairy people might get away with using a wahl first, followed by a Norelco.
It actually makes me happy i'm not all that hairy.
But I use a straight razor.
Disposable razors are inadequate for me
I've always wanted to get into a straight razor actually at least for my major face parts. I'd feel uncomfortable with it tward my neck and jaw line.
What I really enjoyed rather then a physical blade were those replacable razors, as in you unscrew the bottom shaft and the head opens up and you pop in a razor. But for the life of me, I can't find those local. It's much easier finding disposable safty heads for your generic style or your current latest super duper models (Sensor / Mach 3).
What I find most annoying is there was an older model disposable head razor I had.. Atra perhaps it was called, but costco doesn't carry anything but Sensor or mach 3 heads. Dual blade with soap strip. I was pretty happy with the cost / peformance ratio.
Worst was something I think it was called wreckless sword, or something similar.
I do feel a bit dumb about my $50 electric razor. That's maybe a different caliber of dumb.
You know.... I personaly would never call someone dumb for buying a $50.00 electric razor.
It's been a while since I priced razor blades, due to the fact that I have a happening $50.00 electric razor, and my safty razor needs are currently accomplished by the free "mach 3"s I get in the mail on a regular basis. My last one has been in use for about 3 years. If I was going with a mach 3... I believe $15.00 per 12 count box is a good deal.. so roughly 1.25 each. Assuming you throw them out weekly that's $65 a year. I'm actually not a hairy guy... so it's more like 2 weeks for me... so $40.00 a year on mach3s
$50.00 for 3 years of shaving enjoyment, and once and a while with a free mach 3 turbo if I feel the need to look extra spiffy isn't dumb at all, it's actually pretty damn cost effective.
Plus the bonus if i'm late, I can shave while in rush hour traffic... it's not like I need to pay attention to the road or anything.
A small streem + Car alternator = power. The last one I purchaced with an internal regular was rated for 65amps... I'm not sure what rpm would = 65amps, but i'm thinking that you could probally generate a good 2-5amps with a paddle wheel of some sort of DC power with a minimal flow river.
My battery died at a rest area in oregon once, just a bit north of ashland, I fell asleep with the lines on. I was able dismount my alternator (internal rectifier), strap on some painting sticks with duct tape (one pair at two feet in lenth * 5 spokes), and with my jumper cables I plaed the thing by the local streem in in about 8 hours I had power, enough to start my car.
Gasoline is costly.
[warning, american centric prices]
Is Gasoline costly, vs power directly from the grid? Not to put to fine a point on it, but based on my observations.... the fuel bill for something like fuel oil, which is diecel #2 floats at $1.50 a gal... and is also on par with what I use, propane heat also at about $1.50 a gal.
I burn roughly 100 gal a year at a cost of $150 for heat and stove. While I don't have an accurate price estimate of what I was consuming with electrisity for the heaters... but needless to say it was a hell of alot more then $12.50 a month average. Friends I know have oil heat burn a similar amount.
I don't have much in the way of experence with generating electristy with a gas (petrol, diecel, propane/methaine) powered generator, but based under the assumption that it's cheeper to heat via gas... depending on how efficent the generator is it might actually cost less to heat by gas.
I had planed to research this for friends / family who live back east, where the cost of electric is extraordenary and depend on AC in the summer to not cook.
Before the release of Windows for Workgroups you had to use non-Microsoft network protocol software to network Windows boxes.
Ahh.... this explains Lantastic(sp)... that crazy thing that was just fantastic(sic).
Um... all I did was splice the wires from the tapedrive directly into the handset of the bell telephone I had at the time. Not the princess style, but the type that would actually fit on an acustic modem. I also used the input on my cassette and earphone output so I could get the line levels correct, i.e. using the tape player as a small amp, but actually reducing the the volume level. As you could hear your self in the ear piece, it wasn't all that hard to play it by ear so to speak.
I've been told in the past that playing music over my phone that I somehow managed to get a quality no one else did. Mono only, but acceptable enough for a local top 40 station to rebroadcast material I fed to them, at 4am mind you but still. Also I set my modem to answer and hangup quickly and called the sound effect sugarfoot.
It's not like this was such an odd practice. In some mags at the time, there were radio stations who broadcast programs on the airwaves and expected people to actually pickup the copy of prog on their combo radio/tape deck.