eio has a few alternatives towards the bottom of the page (starting with the 5L-U4E). They range from $99 to $350 in with sizes 5", 6", and 12" available. Most of these accept an NTSC signal, so you could interface one with a cheap PC fairly easily. Unfortunately, all the color displays appear to be sold out right now. With a little bit of digging, you might be able to find another supplier of the same or similar products, or they might get more in stock sometime.
Also, Lik-sang has both a 5" and 7" LCD display for $99 and $199 respectively. The 5" is a PS One display that accepts NTSC/PAL, and the 7" is a more standard NTSC/PAL display. The latter has additional features like an screen orientation flip (so you can mount it however you like), speakers, and a battery slot. This would probably be my choice for this type of project.
Don't disregard the 3Com Audrey, however. You wouldn't even have to hack the thing to get it running as a picture frame. Just plug it into your network and use the browser to display the images from another server that is doing all the work. The browser has a full screen mode that is pretty well suited for this. I should know because one of mine was displaying a pr0n slideshow for a while:-). With a little bit of php/perl/asp/etc programming, you could make a very flexible (with respect to image size, delay between images, etc) solution that could behave exactly how you want.
Their subscription policy sounds like it has been developed with some thought, but I see some potential problems.
First, I would be bothered investing in TransGaming's product knowing that my return could possibly dry up due to other people pulling out.
Steven King tried this method a while back with a mixed result. Sure, he made a bit of money selling it directly to his readers, but the forced honor system he set up didn't end up working. Luckily for his fans, King continued to release the other chapters.
What we have seen thusfar in street performer protocols is that they really don't help the little guy. King could afford to conduct his experiment -- he has some money to burn, and a rather loyal following.
Second, with a 'nobody' like TransGaming, their product has to carry all the weight. It would have to work incredibly well - be fast, stable, and versitile - before I could see them getting any subscription. This is going to be incredibly hard when a 100% perfect product already exists to do this: Windows.
Most linux users I know still dual boot to play games. This doesn't really bother them, and it shouldn't; you use the right tool for the job.
I agree it would be nifty to be able to play DirectX games in Linux, but from their website it sounds like this is another rolling emulation system and it will probably have to go through some serious updating before a new game works under it. It sounds like to get a new game working, the subscribers first need to vote on it, then help test it by sending in bug reports.
This is a lot of work for a game that out of the box will run fine in windows. I miss the appeal.
I don't like being cynical about these types of things. Someday someone will break the system and find a good way to make money off of open source. For this reason I don't blame these guys for trying. I just think that in their case, it is going to be rather hard to achieve the quality of software that subscribers would feel entitled to when they could just boot Windows instead.
Re:Pointless?
on
GPS Drawings
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I'll bite:
More pointless than covering a hotel room with melted cheese, or submersing a Jesus figurine in a jar of urine? I see this as art; a creative form of expression. In that respect it isn't any less pointless than your favorite architect, painter, or sculptor.
Sure, this fits into a niche. Many people can't or don't understand gps, tracking software, or data interpreters. Nevertheless, the end result is the same: people translating an idea onto a medium. Painters use canvas, musicians use tape, these people are using pure space. If you think about it for a second, it doesn't seem pointless at all (to me at least), but rather nifty.
This may not be your thing. I don't care much for landscape painting. But that doesn't mean it is lacking a point. If nothing more, it sounds like the people doing this are enjoying it. Judging from the comments, it looks like they aren't alone. In fact, getting a reaction from someone who doesn't like it even validates it's point...
-toral
Etch-a-sketch
on
GPS Drawings
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
It like an extremely large scale etch-a-sketch, although some of the drawings are not continuous.
Nevertheless, this is certainly nifty. I especially like the airborn ones. Someone could really exploit the 3d nature of this in the sky.
I can see this becoming another type of performance art: watch the gps path on a screen as this guy doodles something in the lake with his boat. A few people working together could come up with some especially spectacular results...
For something a little sooner and a little cheaper, check out the now liquidated Audreys. Sure, they aren't the newest toys, but I just ordered a handful from Tiger Direct for $90 a piece, plus $30 for the usb network adaptor.
Out of the box, it supports web browsing, email, and palm syncing among other things. And with a littlehacking, it can play mp3s, be an X server/client, VNC server/client, web server, etc.
This is very true. Most schools generally can't and don't want use flea market hardware. That doesn't mean that old computers can't be used for education, however.
I've found tremendous joy out of helping a church tutoring program ('Peace Partners' in Benton Harbor, MI) with my knowledge and equipment. The level of necessity in these types of programs is generally far more lax than schools. They need fewer computers set up to do fewer things. Peace Partners has only two computers for the children, one an old p66 with Windows 3.1, the other a p233 with Windows 95. And its amazing how much educational software you can get for these older platforms.
It is also important to realize that donating a computer is a nice gesture, but more important is donating *time* to set up the computer and field any questions that the less tech-oriented program directors are going to have.
If you are willing to provide both your hardware and time, I guarantee you can find a home for your old computers in a community program. And watching children have fun while practicing math is worth far more than the tax write-off.
Slashdot Mirror
eio has a few alternatives towards the bottom of the page (starting with the 5L-U4E). They range from $99 to $350 in with sizes 5", 6", and 12" available. Most of these accept an NTSC signal, so you could interface one with a cheap PC fairly easily. Unfortunately, all the color displays appear to be sold out right now. With a little bit of digging, you might be able to find another supplier of the same or similar products, or they might get more in stock sometime.
:-). With a little bit of php/perl/asp/etc programming, you could make a very flexible (with respect to image size, delay between images, etc) solution that could behave exactly how you want.
Also, Lik-sang has both a 5" and 7" LCD display for $99 and $199 respectively. The 5" is a PS One display that accepts NTSC/PAL, and the 7" is a more standard NTSC/PAL display. The latter has additional features like an screen orientation flip (so you can mount it however you like), speakers, and a battery slot. This would probably be my choice for this type of project.
Don't disregard the 3Com Audrey, however. You wouldn't even have to hack the thing to get it running as a picture frame. Just plug it into your network and use the browser to display the images from another server that is doing all the work. The browser has a full screen mode that is pretty well suited for this. I should know because one of mine was displaying a pr0n slideshow for a while
Their subscription policy sounds like it has been developed with some thought, but I see some potential problems.
First, I would be bothered investing in TransGaming's product knowing that my return could possibly dry up due to other people pulling out.
Steven King tried this method a while back with a mixed result. Sure, he made a bit of money selling it directly to his readers, but the forced honor system he set up didn't end up working. Luckily for his fans, King continued to release the other chapters.
What we have seen thusfar in street performer protocols is that they really don't help the little guy. King could afford to conduct his experiment -- he has some money to burn, and a rather loyal following.
Second, with a 'nobody' like TransGaming, their product has to carry all the weight. It would have to work incredibly well - be fast, stable, and versitile - before I could see them getting any subscription. This is going to be incredibly hard when a 100% perfect product already exists to do this: Windows.
Most linux users I know still dual boot to play games. This doesn't really bother them, and it shouldn't; you use the right tool for the job.
I agree it would be nifty to be able to play DirectX games in Linux, but from their website it sounds like this is another rolling emulation system and it will probably have to go through some serious updating before a new game works under it. It sounds like to get a new game working, the subscribers first need to vote on it, then help test it by sending in bug reports.
This is a lot of work for a game that out of the box will run fine in windows. I miss the appeal.
I don't like being cynical about these types of things. Someday someone will break the system and find a good way to make money off of open source. For this reason I don't blame these guys for trying. I just think that in their case, it is going to be rather hard to achieve the quality of software that subscribers would feel entitled to when they could just boot Windows instead.
I'll bite:
More pointless than covering a hotel room with melted cheese, or submersing a Jesus figurine in a jar of urine? I see this as art; a creative form of expression. In that respect it isn't any less pointless than your favorite architect, painter, or sculptor.
Sure, this fits into a niche. Many people can't or don't understand gps, tracking software, or data interpreters. Nevertheless, the end result is the same: people translating an idea onto a medium. Painters use canvas, musicians use tape, these people are using pure space. If you think about it for a second, it doesn't seem pointless at all (to me at least), but rather nifty.
This may not be your thing. I don't care much for landscape painting. But that doesn't mean it is lacking a point. If nothing more, it sounds like the people doing this are enjoying it. Judging from the comments, it looks like they aren't alone. In fact, getting a reaction from someone who doesn't like it even validates it's point...
-toral
It like an extremely large scale etch-a-sketch, although some of the drawings are not continuous.
Nevertheless, this is certainly nifty. I especially like the airborn ones. Someone could really exploit the 3d nature of this in the sky.
I can see this becoming another type of performance art: watch the gps path on a screen as this guy doodles something in the lake with his boat. A few people working together could come up with some especially spectacular results...
-toral
For something a little sooner and a little cheaper, check out the now liquidated Audreys. Sure, they aren't the newest toys, but I just ordered a handful from Tiger Direct for $90 a piece, plus $30 for the usb network adaptor.
Out of the box, it supports web browsing, email, and palm syncing among other things. And with a little hacking, it can play mp3s, be an X server/client, VNC server/client, web server, etc.
My guess -- if it fits in your hands, its 'palm compatible.'
Hell, I'm eating with my new 'palm compatible' spoon right now!
This is very true. Most schools generally can't and don't want use flea market hardware. That doesn't mean that old computers can't be used for education, however.
I've found tremendous joy out of helping a church tutoring program ('Peace Partners' in Benton Harbor, MI) with my knowledge and equipment. The level of necessity in these types of programs is generally far more lax than schools. They need fewer computers set up to do fewer things. Peace Partners has only two computers for the children, one an old p66 with Windows 3.1, the other a p233 with Windows 95. And its amazing how much educational software you can get for these older platforms.
It is also important to realize that donating a computer is a nice gesture, but more important is donating *time* to set up the computer and field any questions that the less tech-oriented program directors are going to have.
If you are willing to provide both your hardware and time, I guarantee you can find a home for your old computers in a community program. And watching children have fun while practicing math is worth far more than the tax write-off.