It did occur to me that I could make my own access badges for the house, but I thought that would be too extreme (besides, I don't have the electric door strike in place yet).
The best geek gift I ever got - barcode scanner
on
Christmas Gifts for Geeks
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
My brother gave me a Symbol CS1504 barcode scanner (a little over $100). Brown box, no app software, not much of a manual, just USB driver and a web site to discuss the unit. I've now written my own Java code to read it and look up UPC barcodes on the web. Haven't figured out exactly what to do with it, but it's small and has got a laser - what more could you want? Kept me entertained working on code for it for months.
I don't understand why every reviewer seems to think that a home audio server needs to stream its content. I would think that the server would just need to be a wire/wireless ethernet disk server which the client would connect to and read as a file system. The audio playing application would simply start reading the audio file, fill up its memory buffer and start playing when it can buffer over any small disk/network interruptions.
The audio server is practically brainless and the client doesn't need much more than winamp/xmms and a LCD screen. For initial configuration make the thing a DHCP client and maybe use a simple webserver for config tasks which would be annoying from an audio component type front panel.
Does ANYONE sell a commercial product that does it my way or similar?
Smart mobs could easily change our perception of public and political figures! How hard is it to imagine that once camera phones get as common in the US as they are in other places of the world, that some politician just got caught in a compromising situation in a coffee house by some other patron with a camera phone who submitted it instantly to the Enquirer and got paid for it before his latte got cold?
This could have a few outcomes - public figures couldn't get reclusive enough to avoid this problem. One possibility is that with more people being caught in the act that the public will care less about such things (just because they can't handle the load of making a big deal about all of them). Another is that the people who are squeaky clean would float to the top more easily.
If as it appears the tax is on "LAN equipment" then companies might decide to not use dedicated routing/firewall hardware because that just can't be called anything but LAN equipment. But that new general purpose PC they bought which couldn't be considered dedicated LAN hardware, popped 2 LAN cards in and just happened to install Linux and a firewall on would work just fine in its place...
No I don't work for them, but http://www.ibutton.com gets you to devices that can be controlled through a serial (or parallel) port and are cheap. The DS2407 is a switch you can use to control the LEDs. Also check out the TINI links on the page for a Java JVM on a SIMM which can be used to control the LEDs and connect to the net. Nice stuff to work with.
Once when I went to my local high end TV/Stereo store and I saw a Monster Cable power cord on the rack I almost laughed my head off. I mean maybe their signal cables are somewhat better and can make a difference, but the POWER cord???? Gimme a break!
If you want multiple program capability you'd probably need multiple hard drives whether they're in one "superbox" or a cluster. Because of this you might want to have one machine possibly without a hard drive as the piece that sits under the TV and provides the user interface and is networked to the cluster or superbox located in the basement or closet.
That way your fans/hard drives aren't drowning out your soaps.
I've been happy with Speakeasy, but recently they did put a new quota on usenet news which wasn't there before. To me this represented a reduction in service with no price break.
Sedentary geeks can use the timer to tell when their ramen noodles lunch is done boiling.
Re:Since the author didnt mention it...
on
Design Patterns
·
· Score: 1
In some circles it is simply becomming required reading and may be worth your money for that reason alone. I was once asked in an interview to rough out an OO design for the project they would be hiring me for. I quickly came up with a design which was good and based on patterns in my head based on my experience. Then the interviewer asked me what patterns I could see in my design and because I hadn't read the book yet I didn't have the proper lingo to feed back to him even though my patterns matched the books patterns very closely.
I thought the introduction of the book was pretty good and the book overall is very good. My only ccomplaint is that the book suffers a bit from the kind of writing you'd see in a Phd thesis - it takes itself a bit too seriously and uses dense language just for the sake of sounding lofty.
As a person who has been programming professionally since graduation 1988 (and a lot longer before that), I'm not a fan of worrying about certifications. I've programmed in i386 assembler, C, C++, Java, Prolog, VB, Windows, Unix (multiple flavors), and if I didn't feel like programming any more I have full LAN admin experience in both Windows and Unix. I've spent my free time building Linux From Scratch (www.linuxfromscratch.org). I programmed in C++ in the days of cfront and have taught it in classrooms both at work and at a local community college. Then fairly recently my employer decided it likes to see certifications and wanted people to get them. I was actually working as a LAN admin at the time, was my department seriously going to pay/let me waste time getting my C++ certification? I think not. Was I really going to get my MCSE, Java, Unix, C++, and LAN security certifications? When would I have time for work?
Also, I'd much rather ask someone if they program for fun. While I like open source and use it all the time, the programs I spend my own time writing have so far been VERY specific to my home setup and wouldn't be useful enough on a wider scale to distribute - I've also been more in "what is possible (and educational)?" mode rather than what would be practical for others to deal with.
Maybe they're setting up a booth where you can return those unopened copies of Windows that you paid for with the computer you bought just to run Linux! This is great! People should bring their unopened copies of Windows with them to the show to have ready. Or maybe not.
Microsoft - our software is SO flawed that it cannot be disclosed, but it should still be installed on EVERY desktop computer in the world.
Linux - our software is visible to anyone and in fact the National Ssecurity Agency produced their own distribution based on it.
Is this the makings of an ad campaign or what? I could use more laughs after their ad saying that their servers stay up for days without attention.
Omnisky for my Visor Prism has been a disaster
on
Earthlink Buys OmniSky
·
· Score: 5, Informative
What I will say is that when Omnisky for the Prism works, it is pretty darn cool. Unfortunatly after having it for almost a year now I have finally reached the point of being ready to dump it. I don't know what everyone elses experience is, but my Visor crashes A LOT when the Minstrel S modem is attached. I'm not talking once a week, I'm talking about 50% of the time I try to use it I get a fatal error/reboot. The modem is just supposed to work after plugging it in to the unit, but it never does - I have to do a paperclip reset after plugging it in or it doesn't ever work.
Omnisky got my suspicions up a while ago that things weren't going well. About last June I signed up to beta a new version of their software which was according to them a week or two away. Then the date got moved back a few weeks, then a few months, then just never happened.
Their technical support doesn't have much of a clue either. When you get a new modem (I've done this about 5 times now), you get prompted for an "activation code" which is just an encryted IP address, and this is burned into the flash of the modem. If you are then directed to change the IP address by tech support, the menu you use apparently writes the address to Visor storage and not the flash. This means that when/if you end up doing a cold wipe the visor out reboot, the Minstrel tries to connect with the wrong address from flash, gets the local cell tower confused, and you end up calling Omnisky tech support (Has happened to me several times). Since the modem also greatly increases the chances youre in for just such a reboot, this is not good. Omnisky tech support seems to be clueless and opinions differ on whether there is any way to enter a new IP address so that it gets burned to flash and avoids this problem.
Experiences with other Palm devices that use other modems might be better and may not present the tech support challenges that the Minstrel S has, but if others have the same experiences that I've had, the Minstrel S, Omnisky service, and the Visor Prism aren't ready for prime time.
Another problem I tried to get fixed by both Handspring and Omnisky is an incompatibility between the Minstrel S and the Handspring brand backup module. This is totally repeatable. If you start with a completely working Omnisky and Visor system, take the modem out, put the backup module in, back up the system, do a cold Visor restart (blow away everything), restore from the backup module, insert the minstrel S modem, then try to use it, it will not work - ever. If you then hotsynch, do another cold restart, hotsync again, then try to use the minstrel S again it works now, but that kinda eliminates the point of the backup module. Both Palm and Omnisky have blown me off about this one, and the only reason I bought the backup module in the first place was because the Minstrel S modem made my Visor so unstable.
From what I've heard, if you want wireless color handheld internet, buy an IPaq instead.
I kinda lost the thread of the story during the
action stuff. I think that the cast and writers will settle into their groove later (early TNG episodes are just as painful to watch and that show turned out so well acted and written). As for the creative license with history from the other
shows - I'll get over it. I think the ship got underway a little too easily from what I was expecting from the promos. I was looking forward to hearing more about the struggle to get around the solar system and hit warp 1, but by the time of this episode that had been accomplised, it was just a matter of what speed they could hit in doing it. As for the gratuitous sensual scene, yeah it was kinda "stuck in", but I say go for it. Have a Bochco style disclamer at the beginning of each episode and go for it, then show a directors cut version on skinimax:-)
The article said that the researcher DID NOT see
the parts of the brain associated with emotion stimulated while playing violent video games as he expected, but DID see those areas of the brain active when the student was doing math. Sounds obvious to me - doing math causes more violent emotions than playing violent video games ever could. I think the conclusions are pretty obvious that we should stop teaching math at once!
Slashdot Mirror
It did occur to me that I could make my own access badges for the house, but I thought that would be too extreme (besides, I don't have the electric door strike in place yet).
My brother gave me a Symbol CS1504 barcode scanner (a little over $100). Brown box, no app software, not much of a manual, just USB driver and a web site to discuss the unit. I've now written my own Java code to read it and look up UPC barcodes on the web. Haven't figured out exactly what to do with it, but it's small and has got a laser - what more could you want? Kept me entertained working on code for it for months.
I'll give you a hint - not you.
I don't understand why every reviewer seems to think that a home audio server needs to stream its content. I would think that the server would just need to be a wire/wireless ethernet disk server which the client would connect to and read as a file system. The audio playing application would simply start reading the audio file, fill up its memory buffer and start playing when it can buffer over any small disk/network interruptions.
The audio server is practically brainless and the client doesn't need much more than winamp/xmms and a LCD screen. For initial configuration make the thing a DHCP client and maybe use a simple webserver for config tasks which would be annoying from an audio component type front panel.
Does ANYONE sell a commercial product that does it my way or similar?
Smart mobs could easily change our perception of public and political figures! How hard is it to imagine that once camera phones get as common in the US as they are in other places of the world, that some politician just got caught in a compromising situation in a coffee house by some other patron with a camera phone who submitted it instantly to the Enquirer and got paid for it before his latte got cold?
This could have a few outcomes - public figures couldn't get reclusive enough to avoid this problem. One possibility is that with more people being caught in the act that the public will care less about such things (just because they can't handle the load of making a big deal about all of them). Another is that the people who are squeaky clean would float to the top more easily.
If as it appears the tax is on "LAN equipment" then companies might decide to not use dedicated routing/firewall hardware because that just can't be called anything but LAN equipment. But that new general purpose PC they bought which couldn't be considered dedicated LAN hardware, popped 2 LAN cards in and just happened to install Linux and a firewall on would work just fine in its place...
I think that "HAL: Men are from Mars, women are from Venus, and I am going to Jupiter."
Is going to start appearing on sig lines shortly. It is a great line!
Steve
So he'll get an even tan from all those displays...
No I don't work for them, but http://www.ibutton.com gets you to devices that can be controlled through a serial (or parallel) port and are cheap. The DS2407 is a switch you can use to control the LEDs. Also check out the TINI links on the page for a Java JVM on a SIMM which can be used to control the LEDs and connect to the net. Nice stuff to work with.
Once when I went to my local high end TV/Stereo store and I saw a Monster Cable power cord on the rack I almost laughed my head off. I mean maybe their signal cables are somewhat better and can make a difference, but the POWER cord???? Gimme a break!
If you want multiple program capability you'd probably need multiple hard drives whether they're in one "superbox" or a cluster. Because of this you might want to have one machine possibly without a hard drive as the piece that sits under the TV and provides the user interface and is networked to the cluster or superbox located in the basement or closet.
That way your fans/hard drives aren't drowning out your soaps.
I've been happy with Speakeasy, but recently they did put a new quota on usenet news which wasn't there before. To me this represented a reduction in service with no price break.
Sedentary geeks can use the timer to tell when their ramen noodles lunch is done boiling.
I thought the introduction of the book was pretty good and the book overall is very good. My only ccomplaint is that the book suffers a bit from the kind of writing you'd see in a Phd thesis - it takes itself a bit too seriously and uses dense language just for the sake of sounding lofty.
At 60cm (about 2 feet) tall, you'd have to keep the beer in the bottom of the fridge.
Not quite.
Step one, rip off consumers.
Step two, settle out of court.
Step three, pass along price of $67M fine to consumers...
As a person who has been programming professionally since graduation 1988 (and a lot longer before that), I'm not a fan of worrying about certifications. I've programmed in i386 assembler, C, C++, Java, Prolog, VB, Windows, Unix (multiple flavors), and if I didn't feel like programming any more I have full LAN admin experience in both Windows and Unix. I've spent my free time building Linux From Scratch (www.linuxfromscratch.org). I programmed in C++ in the days of cfront and have taught it in classrooms both at work and at a local community college. Then fairly recently my employer decided it likes to see certifications and wanted people to get them. I was actually working as a LAN admin at the time, was my department seriously going to pay/let me waste time getting my C++ certification? I think not. Was I really going to get my MCSE, Java, Unix, C++, and LAN security certifications? When would I have time for work?
Also, I'd much rather ask someone if they program for fun. While I like open source and use it all the time, the programs I spend my own time writing have so far been VERY specific to my home setup and wouldn't be useful enough on a wider scale to distribute - I've also been more in "what is possible (and educational)?" mode rather than what
would be practical for others to deal with.
Maybe they're setting up a booth where you can return those unopened copies of Windows that you paid for with the computer you bought just to run Linux! This is great! People should bring their unopened copies of Windows with them to the show to have ready. Or maybe not.
Sounds like Q's going to need it's own nuclear reactor for a battery....
That was what I thought was funny. Any Unix vendor would NEVER have said days (or weeks) - they would have been laughed at.
Microsoft - our software is SO flawed that it cannot be disclosed, but it should still be installed on EVERY desktop computer in the world.
Linux - our software is visible to anyone and in fact the National Ssecurity Agency produced their own distribution based on it.
Is this the makings of an ad campaign or what? I could use more laughs after their ad saying that their servers stay up for days without attention.
What I will say is that when Omnisky for the Prism works, it is pretty darn cool. Unfortunatly after having it for almost a year now I have finally reached the point of being ready to dump it. I don't know what everyone elses experience is, but my Visor crashes A LOT when the Minstrel S modem is attached. I'm not talking once a week, I'm talking about 50% of the time I try to use it I get a fatal error/reboot. The modem is just supposed to work after plugging it in to the unit, but it never does - I have to do a paperclip reset after plugging it in or it doesn't ever work.
Omnisky got my suspicions up a while ago that things weren't going well. About last June I signed up to beta a new version of their software which was according to them a week or two away. Then the date got moved back a few weeks, then a few months, then just never happened.
Their technical support doesn't have much of a clue either. When you get a new modem (I've done this about 5 times now), you get prompted for an "activation code" which is just an encryted IP address, and this is burned into the flash of the modem. If you are then directed to change the IP address by tech support, the menu you use apparently writes the address to Visor storage and not the flash. This means that when/if you end up doing a cold wipe the visor out reboot, the Minstrel tries to connect with the wrong address from flash, gets the local cell tower confused, and you end up calling Omnisky tech support (Has happened to me several times). Since the modem also greatly increases the chances youre in for just such a reboot, this is not good. Omnisky tech support seems to be clueless and opinions differ on whether there is any way to enter a new IP address so that it gets burned to flash and avoids this problem.
Experiences with other Palm devices that use other modems might be better and may not present the tech support challenges that the Minstrel S has, but if others have the same experiences that I've had, the Minstrel S, Omnisky service, and the Visor Prism aren't ready for prime time.
Another problem I tried to get fixed by both Handspring and Omnisky is an incompatibility between the Minstrel S and the Handspring brand backup module. This is totally repeatable. If you start with a completely working Omnisky and Visor system, take the modem out, put the backup module in, back up the system, do a cold Visor restart (blow away everything), restore from the backup module, insert the minstrel S modem, then try to use it, it will not work - ever. If you then hotsynch, do another cold restart, hotsync again, then try to use the minstrel S again it works now, but that kinda eliminates the point of the backup module. Both Palm and Omnisky have blown me off about this one, and the only reason I bought the backup module in the first place was because the Minstrel S modem made my Visor so unstable.
From what I've heard, if you want wireless color handheld internet, buy an IPaq instead.
I kinda lost the thread of the story during the :-)
action stuff. I think that the cast and writers will settle into their groove later (early TNG episodes are just as painful to watch and that show turned out so well acted and written). As for the creative license with history from the other
shows - I'll get over it. I think the ship got underway a little too easily from what I was expecting from the promos. I was looking forward to hearing more about the struggle to get around the solar system and hit warp 1, but by the time of this episode that had been accomplised, it was just a matter of what speed they could hit in doing it. As for the gratuitous sensual scene, yeah it was kinda "stuck in", but I say go for it. Have a Bochco style disclamer at the beginning of each episode and go for it, then show a directors cut version on skinimax
I'm holding out for the MRI.
The article said that the researcher DID NOT see
the parts of the brain associated with emotion stimulated while playing violent video games as he expected, but DID see those areas of the brain active when the student was doing math. Sounds obvious to me - doing math causes more violent emotions than playing violent video games ever could. I think the conclusions are pretty obvious that we should stop teaching math at once!