Cool - now I am going to have to find my punch card and look at it (I have one I found in a IBM 740 (or 704?) training manual - I guess someone was using it as a bookmark). The image you gave, though, was clear enough to see what you meant by zone holes.
Your explanation helps a lot - not that I have any use for such info, but I was curious about it. Between your explanation and the byte conversion array the other guy gave, I should be able to figure it out further.
Now, what does this say about EBCDIC and ASCII, about which came first? It sounds like ASCII came first - but what is the real answer?
* Two pieces of particle board * Halogen lamp * Cheap K-Mart chair for guests (makes 'em leave quicker) * Cheesy desk fan * Battery operated analog clock movement (just hands, no face) * SANS poster * Three whiteboards * Homemade air-current spinny thing (1) * Flower made from telephone hookup wire (1) * Cactus terarium, with one dead cactus and plastic lizard * Spool of 100' of Cat-3 * A ton of RS/6000 and SunExpert Magazines * One big ass peace lily plant * Leonardo Da Vinci calendar
Notes:
1 - These two items are taped onto my monitor.
Of course, this is in my office - not my cubicle (though I actually miss my cube)...
Was the resoning behind EBCDIC - from what I have seen, it is nearly totally different from ASCII (or maybe it is the other way around - which came first?). I have not ever been able to find an EBCDIC to ASCII conversion chart/table/code, nor have I ever seen more than a subset of an EBCDIC chart. On top of this, I have never been able to find a history or anything on how EBCDIC came about or why. Can anyone point me to a resource?
It is unlikely you will get a robot arm to open a can of coke for you, being that coke cans are designed for humans to open, but I can imagine building (or buying) an arm to pour you a coke into a glass.
With that said, in answer to your question as to where to get a cheap arm, might I suggest Ebay?
Go on Ebay, and search for the words "robot" and "arm", and you will likely get a few hits every time. One caveat though:
Most of the time, these robot arms will be of the "Armatron" variety. For computer control, these arms can be converted - for the normal Armatron (the one controlled by joysticks, with the countdown timer, two blue balls, etc), it takes 6 motors, or a few solenoids (depending on if you want to open the thing up or not) - actually the six motor version is best - there is an old Radio Electronics magazine article on how to do it, and control it from a VIC-20 or C=64 - I can't remember the issue off-hand, but it is either 1983 or 84 - possibly April, May or June - I think (I have a copy - if you would like me to scan and post it somewhere, leave a reply to this message, and I will work it out).
One note on the "normal" Armatron - several versions were made - Tomy made the original (and if you see the word "vintage" and the asking price is high, say over $25.00, make sure it is a Tomy - more on that in a bit) - it was blue and grey, and had (orange?) "hoses" that connected the forearm and shoulder. Tomy later sold the rights to Radio Shack to produce the toy, they kept the same color scheme (sans hoses), but then switched to a grey and white color scheme in later (after 1990?) years. Don't believe anyone if they say it was manufactured prior to 1980 - this toy didn't appear until around 1981 or 82 from Tomy - and it is rare that you actually see a Tomy version, most of them are the RS version (if you are a collector, you want the Tomy version - with the hoses, and not the RS version). You should be able to pick up any one of these for less than $40.00 on Ebay (unless it IS a Tomy original, then who knows)...
One company actually built a mobil version of this device for the Radio Shack Color Computer, and added a video camera/digitizer to the package as well (the camera was mounted on the shoulder of the machine), and sold it through Rainbow magazine...
Radio Shack later came out with what they called the Mobile Armatron (not the same as the independent machine produced above) - it was an arm on a wheeled base, with a wired controller - very easy to hook up to a computer to control, much more so than the original Armatron (the orginal Armatron uses a complex transmission and a single motor to control all six functions of the arm - this was Tomy engineering at it's finest) - these tend to go cheap on Ebay as well.
Every once in a while you may find one of the original serial port trainer arms manufactured in the late 70's/early 80's for schools (pick up an old copy of Byte magazine from the time to see what I mean). These were meant to interface, most generally, to an Apple IIe or similar machine of that day, to the serial port. However, people on Ebay know these when they see them - many may have busted parts (like pulley strings/cables) that would have to be replaced - but a competent individual should have no problem here. By the way, if you ever find a Rhino arm - snatch it up, it was one of the original trainers.
Ever so rarely though, one may be able to bid on Ebay for an industrial robot - I have seen hydraulic, electric, and pneumatic go up for bid there, though may times for high prices (but certainly way less than what the machines would cost new!), and most of the time you have to go pick them up. But they are there for the enterprising individual.
On a final note, you can also find the full line of Tomy robots on Ebay - from the well known Omnibot (which has also been seen in a RobotWar or two), to the lesser known Verbot, Chatbot, and Omnibot 2000. For computer control, I would say the Omnibot 2000 would be the easiest. One could either rip the guts out, and control him directly, or attempt to interface to the myriad ports on the back of the robot (from what I can see on the documentation on the Omnibot 2000 I own, it looks like Tomy wanted to provide a computer interface, but it never saw the light of day), or interface through the radio control. What is interesting about the Omnibot 2000, is if you can get the serving tray with yours, the right arm can be set up and controlled to lift a coke can up to a person, and "serve" the person a coke (and from the looks of my tray, it looks like someone tried at one time to have the bot pour a coke into a glass and serve the glass, but instead spilled the coke - but what is funny, is that the Omnibot 2000's wrist can rotate, so it is possible to pick an open coke up with the arm, and rotate it to pour it out, so it should be possible in theory - or at least by design). I have thought one could take one of these and mount a couple of Quickcams in the "eyes", giving the robot vision capabilities.
Just be aware of the collector value on these robots (which is why I haven't torn mine apart) - very few of the Omnibot 2000's can be found (though much more than can be found of the Heathkit Hero line, and many, many more than the Maxx Steele programmable robot!), so the price will go up accordingly (around $300-400, sometimes $500) on the bid. I got mine for the trade of a 486 a few years back - but I got lucky.
And if you find a Topo, or an Androbot - please let me know...
What I meant to express was that files would not have been renamed or deleted, excepting those owned by the user (either in the user's "home" directory, or elsewhere in the system) and having write permissions turned "on".
You have a point in that the "virus" could be propagated via the contact/email list being available to it, due to that list being owned by the user. However, damage to the system as a whole (or potential damage - ILOVEYOU could have easily overwritten DLL's or such to cause major problems) would not be possible - only things owned by the user logged in would be affected.
The only time the "virus" would have access to other user's files if if those other users gave access to the user running the "virus" to see them - as long as the directory and file permissions are set properly, this would not be a problem. Other than if the user ran as root...
Of course, this all comes back to responsibilty - the user should be responsible enough NOT to use the system as root, except in extreme cases, and to have set permissions properly on his files, and for other users to have done the same. Unfortunately, as I said before, society seems to think it better to point fingers, rather than owning up to problems...
Hey, I would love a Sol or an Altair to toggle code into - no problem here.
I don't think computers "breed" ignorant users. I think society does. Somehow, through some mechanism (many would call it the public school system, but I am sure there are other factors - consumerism comes to mind), society has allowed ignorance to be "OK" (as well as laziness, because one has to be motivated to move beyond spoon-feeding).
As far as cars are concerned - yes, I think it is a failing that many people don't really know how their car works - not even at a conceptual level. Most can't even begin to imagine how a car works, or how they could build their own "simple" vehicle, if they had to. Society has a problem when it is deemed better to push responsibility of a problem, such as fixing a flat, onto someone at the far end of a cel-phone conversation - rather than getting the jack and tire, and doing it yourself.
Certain problems I can understand - I am not saying everyone should do everything themselves (no home surgery, or major auto repairs, for instance - unless that person REALLY wants to). But certain things - taking apart and putting things back together, or learning a simple structuring and organization system, or cooking a cheese sandwich - one should either know how to do these things, or be willing to learn.
My landlord, who is a very old man, wanted me to explain computers to him in terms he could understand. As we were talking, he asked me if the reason why he wasn't getting it was because he was stupid about such things. I told him "No, I don't believe you to be stupid - I would rather have you asking me the questions, being truely interested in expanding your knowledge - rather than pretending things were too complicated, and burying your head in the sand".
That man is, by far, smarter and wiser than many of my "peers".
In the past several days, I have read many accounts as to why this virus spread, as well as for/against reasons as to whether or not this could happen on the Linux platform. Everything I have read seems to indicate that this "virus" (I would prefer the term "trojan" as being more accurate) relied on two seperate things existing in order to propagate: 1) That of the user clicking on the attachment to "run" it, and 2) Outlook being installed (for the sake of the address book).
In other words, this could have happened on a Linux box, had such a thing as Outlook existed for Linux (although I think damage would still have been minimal, since the user should be running as a user, and not as root). Now, if the user was using some other email client, and clicked on the attachment, if it wasn't Outlook, nothing happened (not that the code couldn't have been written to take this in account, however, such modifications to the code would have made it much more complicated).
So, for this particular case, what we have here is not a software problem, but a societal problem. If the code auto-executed, or used some blatent hole or "feature" of Windoze, that would be one thing. However, it didn't.
Our current society (which many geeks are not a part of - we dwell within it, but we generally don't subscribe to it's beliefs) is one in which limited attention span, a need to quickly satiate desires without thinking about consequences of action, and a lack of responsibility - has caused such manifestations of chaos.
Society's limited attention span has caused the forgetting of history, in society's mind, about such past transgressions such as the Morris Internet Worm (which I remember as being newsworthy, but I wasn't on the Net at the time, to be affected by it's "destructiveness"), MS-DOS viruses, and the Melissa Email "virus".
Society's need to quickly satiate desires, without thinking about ramifications of actions, allow for such acts to continue, over and over again - because it seems like the reward should be obtained at any cost (or it should just be obtained, without thought to what hooks are buried within). Sort of like ordering a Big Mac meal at Mc Donald's - "Would you like to upsize that?" they ask, and when you say "No!" (being a geek), they look at you like "Aww, don't you want an extra cup of grease to go with that fatburger?" - you know what the hooks are, but most people see "Wow, more for less than the cost of it seperately! I'll take it!" (on a side note, this reminds me of a Jack in the Box trick - a couple of their meals are wierd; if you order one of the meals, and then a seperate sandwich, which has it's own meal, it is cheaper than getting that same sandwich as a meal, and the sandwich of the other original meal seperately - only by a few pennies, mind you - but imagine thousands of people doing this every day, without nary a thought about it - instant money).
Finally, society's lack of responsibility is what is ultimately responsible. Someone, somewhere (and if we believe the reports and source code, that "somewhere" is the Phillipines) has said to themselves "I am not going to be responsible to myself or my feelings - I am NOT going to work out my problems. I am instead GOING TO LASH OUT, and send this scourge upon the world!", the outpouring of a 3-year old's tantrum.
Why does society let this continue? Why isn't society educating itself to deal with problems that occur in the individual's life, rather than blaming the other guy (and in the end, making the lawyers rich)? Why does society always need a "quick fix" - why doesn't it step back, and realize that what it has is actually pretty damn good?
Why does society continue to forget, and repeat history - has society not learned the maxim?
Answer these questions, and fix the problems - and I bet many of the current issues facing us today, simply disappear.
Rather than "The report is in the file cabinet marked 1966, filed under reports, sub-filed May..." or whatever other system was in use.
One thing I wondered about the whole Y2K scenario (ya know, everything stops working), is that everyone was saying "We'll just use pencil and paper!" - except, if no one knows what a directory tree structure is or how it is used, how can they begin to figure out a file cabinet organization system (which is all directory trees really are - virtual file cabinets)?
What I find really amusing is the secretary (or other lamer) who can figure out a filing cabinet organizing system - but fails to understand a directory tree - it is like they sit in front of a computer, and go stupid!
You know, everywhere I go, where computer access is needed, and the enviroment is dirty (oil change place, mechanic's, auto zone, checker, etc - hell, any car place - many hospitals, warehouses, etc), there seems to always be a VT100 terminal sitting around, working just fine. Many have missing keys, or the printed characters on the keyboards are rubbed off - or they are covered by a rubber skin over the keyboard that is an ugly brownish yellow. Are these terminals nearly indestructable?
One use for mathematics I have always found handy has been for those stupid "how many jelly beans are in the jar" contests...
One can usually get fairly close via figuring out how many jelly beans will fit into the area of the jar's cross section (sometimes they make the jar round to make it more difficult, but hey, A=PI(r^2) for a circle - no sweat), then multiplying by the number of "thicknesses" of the jellybeans that the jar is in height (if you understood that, then you know what I am saying), to get a number that is close. Add a little fudge factor ('cause those damn jelly beans never manage line up properly in even layers, like they would in an ideal system), and you're set.
Sometimes a jar/vase is used with varying area cross sections - these can be figured out individually, then totalled at the end.
Heaven forbid they use a sphere (oh no - spherical volumes - don't make me work).
Of course, I may be just too much of a geek...
Then again - anybody got ideas/info on obtaining better values for this kind of close fit problem?
Actually, look into old towns/old mining towns of the American West in the late 1800's, and the history of "shady ladies" (so called, because of many towns passing laws requiring "ladies of the night" to walk on the shaded sides of the street only). You will find that many of these women would pass out "invitation" cards to clients and prospective clients, that featured nude poses of various sorts (a good collection can be found in Tombstone, Arizona - none of it is hardcore. Most of the collection would look right at home in a Playboy. The pictures are quite artistic, and show a lot of skill on the parts of the photographer and "model").
I am sure porn has been around longer than that though, probably for as long as mankind could create art.
This is what I can't figure out about this whole case:
MP3.COM copies 80,000 songs to the MP3 format. This is Fair Use (they own the CDs - provided they didn't throw them away after they copied them). MP3.COM is allowed to make a copy under the HRA.
Now, they make these copies available to the public. If this was a free-for-all, anyone-can-download-a-song system, then they would be in violation. But no, they set up a system, as best as they can, to have the user, who wants to get a copy (or stream the song) to listen to, to provide their CD, which they purchased, which has the song on it. That individual can now get the MP3 of the song they wanted from MP3.COM.
In essence, MP3.COM is providing a CD ripping service, in which you have to prove you own the CD (hey, not everyone has the time or space to rip CD tracks). Granted, their system wasn't perfect, but it was a good effort - probably the only workable effort with current technology.
True, they allowed multiple people to listen/download the same tracks at one time - but these people owned the CD - they could have, if they had the time, ripped the track(s) themselves, legally under the HRA and Fair Use.
Somehow, what this ruling is saying, seems to be that if a user owns a CD, but gets the ripped MP3 track from someone else, that track - even if ripped from an identical CD - is not the same track, and is illegal. This is wrong - bits are bits are bits (of course, then you get some shmoe saying, well the conversion was lossy and not the same, see these random bits of noise here - etc, if you catch my meaning).
MP3.COM wasn't allowing a free for all - the service they offered was a good one, for those people without the time, space, or skill to rip their own CD's...
For years I have tried to find out more information on the Antipodal Bomber, the only reference being some book I had checked out long ago from the library when I was a kid - I thought I might have dreamt the whole thing. Thank you for restoring my sanity!
BTW, this is what I live to see on the web - not all the commercial shit that is out there, but honest sites bringing cool information - information that is hard or impossible to find otherwise...
Yeah - garage sales can be great, though they tend to be a pain to search out, unless you like that kind of thing (I admit it, I do)...
Just a couple of months ago I was in San Diego cruising yard sales, and managed to pick up a P200MMX with 64 Meg EDO (2-32 Meg SIMMs) and a 24x EIDE CD-ROM drive (no video card or hard drive, but the case was pretty nice), as well as the drivers and manuals for the motherboard and such - all for $50.00! The person selling it obviously didn't know it's value (the RAM alone should have sold for $50). This was a once-in-a-lifetime deal, and has to be an aberration in the whole scheme of things, so I never expect to see this kind of thing again (of course, there was the one time I bought a machine for the case, thinking it was a 386, and it turned out to be a P100 with 16 meg - all for $15.00). Maybe I am lucky...
So, what happened to the P200 box? Well, let's just say it makes a sweet SuSE box now...
Access Micro has one on this page called the "AOC FINGER TRACKBALL" that seems kinda interesting.
Two buttons on the top near the trackball, and one "trigger-style" for your index finger. The trackball (and top buttons) are controlled with your thumb.
It doesn't seem like a good trackball for use at the desktop level, since you have to "fit" your hand around it. However, it seems perfect as a navigation tool for a virtual environment (may be good for Quake, too!). I bought one of these for just that purpose (VE nav, not Quake)...
Has anybody here dealt with graphics performance under Perl? Specifically under X?
I am wanting to undertake a project using X to develop a 3D engine (and I don't want to reinvent the wheel too much here, though I do want it to be a learning experience - I figure I will use OpenGL), and I am wondering if Perl can do this at a reasonable speed (I am not looking for 100 FPS with a bazillion texture mapped polys - though this would be cool). If not, what would be the best way?
Should I do what I planned to do in the first place (using C/C++ and OpenGL), or is there a combo of using Perl and C/C++ I could/should do?
Finally, what about handling non-standard devices (like custom home-brewed interface boards)? How can Perl handle those?
I am just looking for advice so I don't head down the wrong road to find a dead end...
I have asked other companies (generally via an email comment) in the past if they plan to do anything using Linux, and invariably the reply I tend to get (if I get one), is the equivalent of "No, we do not plan to pursue that".
When I get that reply, I tend to chuckle, and think to myself "oh, yes you will", and much to my suprise (gasp!), several months later the very same company announces a product, or does something productive for the Linux crowd.
Now, I understand that some of these denials I was given may have been a way to just divert me, so I wouldn't be able to divulge details to competition. However, some companies are so dead-set against Linux in their replies, that I wonder what they don't see that I do?
Why is it that I can see the tide turning, and they can't? Why do they come late into the game (sometimes after what they offer isn't even needed anymore)?
Most of the stuff I have seen tend to be on the order of "write the app for the server, then telnet in - ssh for the paranoid". While this definitely isn't the most pretty solution, it is one that works. Reporting could be handled by a multitude of options, but an easy one is to send the output to a file, then have the user download and print it on their end.
Not pretty, not pretty at all - but it gets the job done. This solution could be updated somewhat via an HTML interface and some Perl CGI magic, maybe with a little Javascript for client-side verification of data (prior to the "submit"). Build report CGI to spit out web pages, and have the user print those (long inventory reports could be a bitch though, do the download thing here).
Main thing is, the more complicated you make it (and generally, making it "snazzier" makes it more complicated), the more likely it is to break - and you don't want it to break. You especially don't want it to break only on certain clients, where you have to take a trip out to see what is happening. By keeping everything on the server (via telnet/ssh), you nearly eliminate this (except for the crazy client that wants to use ADDS ViewPoint emul for VT220 output - grrr)...
While interesting that someone (or a group) is actually thinking about doing this, I tend to wonder if they have looked into any prior art...
The closest any group has come to creating a mecha (aside from the GE Hardiman suit), has been the Ohio State University Walking Truck (I don't think they called it that, but that is what it looked like). The system had multiple legs (six), and a computer controlled adaptive walking gait system, with sensors on the legs and feet. The "driver" sat up front in a "cab". The whole thing was run by a small engine driving a generator and hydraulic pump.
The only other device I know of that is like a mech is the Robosaurus.
In both cases (ok, all three if you count the Hardiman), the cost to build the systems was immense. In the end (well, with the exception of Robosaurus), all were "scrapped". Nothing more ever came out of them.
MPS thinks that somehow they will create a walking mech, that is able to balance properly and be drivable - and do it out of a garage? Don't get me wrong - I wish these guys luck, but unless some of them worked with SRL at one point in their lives, I don't think it is going to happen. I would be impressed if they were able to build a functioning LEGO version (building prototype leg devices don't count - and yes, I know people have created bipedal walking LEGO machines).
If they could build a bipedal LEGO machine that walked in a figure-8, I would believe they stand a chance in hell of building a full size device. But doing so would mean that they have (in a garage, no less), beat out the likes of GE, Honda, OSU, and DOD - who have near unlimited resources, and developed a drivable, bipedal walking machine.
I know that it only took one college student to kick off the whole Linux thing - but this is a totally different matter - one that encompasses everything from robotics to AI to engineering to materials science (that steel better be damn strong for the forces it will encounter!), through a number of other disciplines.
Hey guys! Prove me wrong - one last thing, I was born and raised in Bako, so I would be damn proud to see the first true mech walk outta there...
This is a "self-referential" UL - that is, an urban legend being refuted with... tada!...another urban legend.
Most urban legends don't give specific names, or dates, or places. Most tend to be short.
This particular one happens to be very long, but sadly, it is still an urban legend. However, it does make an interesting story - it is well written (not the best prose on the planet, but a good yarn!), and keeps you reading and laughing all the way through. The proof of it being an urban legend is the lack of important details (like names, for instance - of places for one).
I have to say, someone had a lot of time on his hands!
But plenty expensive, too. Look into solar panels for RV's - many of these are quite large, and can be adapted easily. You will need a large voltage regulator and a battery bank as well - and if you are planning on running 110VAC, an inverter (many people just buy 12 or 24 volt appliances, instead). You can easily spend several 10's of thousands of dollars on a system.
Look into wind power options as well (if you have an ample breeze blowing). If you live near the border of Mexico (near a border town), sometimes resellers of solar solutions hang out on the US side (esp if there are RV camps near the border town).
Building a solar panel for heating water is almost trivial - a bit of copper pipe, some plywood and two by foors, and black paint (plus a sheet of glass) is about all you need. You can build a pretty good system to tie into your home heating system for less than $500 (and remember, you might be able to take a tax break as well).
Final note - it is possible to build a house and COOL it using a passive solar solution. The trick is the house has a large chimney which is heated by the sun. As the hot air rises, it draws in cooler air through the windows, or through vents with water evap pads (similar to a swamp cooler). Not great for places like Lousianna, but for desert areas without too much humidity, it is almost free cooling.
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Cool - now I am going to have to find my punch card and look at it (I have one I found in a IBM 740 (or 704?) training manual - I guess someone was using it as a bookmark). The image you gave, though, was clear enough to see what you meant by zone holes.
Your explanation helps a lot - not that I have any use for such info, but I was curious about it. Between your explanation and the byte conversion array the other guy gave, I should be able to figure it out further.
Now, what does this say about EBCDIC and ASCII, about which came first? It sounds like ASCII came first - but what is the real answer?
* Two pieces of particle board
* Halogen lamp
* Cheap K-Mart chair for guests (makes 'em leave quicker)
* Cheesy desk fan
* Battery operated analog clock movement (just hands, no face)
* SANS poster
* Three whiteboards
* Homemade air-current spinny thing (1)
* Flower made from telephone hookup wire (1)
* Cactus terarium, with one dead cactus and plastic lizard
* Spool of 100' of Cat-3
* A ton of RS/6000 and SunExpert Magazines
* One big ass peace lily plant
* Leonardo Da Vinci calendar
Notes:
1 - These two items are taped onto my monitor.
Of course, this is in my office - not my cubicle (though I actually miss my cube)...
Maybe I am just messy, and not geeky...hmm...
Was the resoning behind EBCDIC - from what I have seen, it is nearly totally different from ASCII (or maybe it is the other way around - which came first?). I have not ever been able to find an EBCDIC to ASCII conversion chart/table/code, nor have I ever seen more than a subset of an EBCDIC chart. On top of this, I have never been able to find a history or anything on how EBCDIC came about or why. Can anyone point me to a resource?
It is unlikely you will get a robot arm to open a can of coke for you, being that coke cans are designed for humans to open, but I can imagine building (or buying) an arm to pour you a coke into a glass.
With that said, in answer to your question as to where to get a cheap arm, might I suggest Ebay?
Go on Ebay, and search for the words "robot" and "arm", and you will likely get a few hits every time. One caveat though:
Most of the time, these robot arms will be of the "Armatron" variety. For computer control, these arms can be converted - for the normal Armatron (the one controlled by joysticks, with the countdown timer, two blue balls, etc), it takes 6 motors, or a few solenoids (depending on if you want to open the thing up or not) - actually the six motor version is best - there is an old Radio Electronics magazine article on how to do it, and control it from a VIC-20 or C=64 - I can't remember the issue off-hand, but it is either 1983 or 84 - possibly April, May or June - I think (I have a copy - if you would like me to scan and post it somewhere, leave a reply to this message, and I will work it out).
One note on the "normal" Armatron - several versions were made - Tomy made the original (and if you see the word "vintage" and the asking price is high, say over $25.00, make sure it is a Tomy - more on that in a bit) - it was blue and grey, and had (orange?) "hoses" that connected the forearm and shoulder. Tomy later sold the rights to Radio Shack to produce the toy, they kept the same color scheme (sans hoses), but then switched to a grey and white color scheme in later (after 1990?) years. Don't believe anyone if they say it was manufactured prior to 1980 - this toy didn't appear until around 1981 or 82 from Tomy - and it is rare that you actually see a Tomy version, most of them are the RS version (if you are a collector, you want the Tomy version - with the hoses, and not the RS version). You should be able to pick up any one of these for less than $40.00 on Ebay (unless it IS a Tomy original, then who knows)...
One company actually built a mobil version of this device for the Radio Shack Color Computer, and added a video camera/digitizer to the package as well (the camera was mounted on the shoulder of the machine), and sold it through Rainbow magazine...
Radio Shack later came out with what they called the Mobile Armatron (not the same as the independent machine produced above) - it was an arm on a wheeled base, with a wired controller - very easy to hook up to a computer to control, much more so than the original Armatron (the orginal Armatron uses a complex transmission and a single motor to control all six functions of the arm - this was Tomy engineering at it's finest) - these tend to go cheap on Ebay as well.
Every once in a while you may find one of the original serial port trainer arms manufactured in the late 70's/early 80's for schools (pick up an old copy of Byte magazine from the time to see what I mean). These were meant to interface, most generally, to an Apple IIe or similar machine of that day, to the serial port. However, people on Ebay know these when they see them - many may have busted parts (like pulley strings/cables) that would have to be replaced - but a competent individual should have no problem here. By the way, if you ever find a Rhino arm - snatch it up, it was one of the original trainers.
Ever so rarely though, one may be able to bid on Ebay for an industrial robot - I have seen hydraulic, electric, and pneumatic go up for bid there, though may times for high prices (but certainly way less than what the machines would cost new!), and most of the time you have to go pick them up. But they are there for the enterprising individual.
On a final note, you can also find the full line of Tomy robots on Ebay - from the well known Omnibot (which has also been seen in a RobotWar or two), to the lesser known Verbot, Chatbot, and Omnibot 2000. For computer control, I would say the Omnibot 2000 would be the easiest. One could either rip the guts out, and control him directly, or attempt to interface to the myriad ports on the back of the robot (from what I can see on the documentation on the Omnibot 2000 I own, it looks like Tomy wanted to provide a computer interface, but it never saw the light of day), or interface through the radio control. What is interesting about the Omnibot 2000, is if you can get the serving tray with yours, the right arm can be set up and controlled to lift a coke can up to a person, and "serve" the person a coke (and from the looks of my tray, it looks like someone tried at one time to have the bot pour a coke into a glass and serve the glass, but instead spilled the coke - but what is funny, is that the Omnibot 2000's wrist can rotate, so it is possible to pick an open coke up with the arm, and rotate it to pour it out, so it should be possible in theory - or at least by design). I have thought one could take one of these and mount a couple of Quickcams in the "eyes", giving the robot vision capabilities.
Just be aware of the collector value on these robots (which is why I haven't torn mine apart) - very few of the Omnibot 2000's can be found (though much more than can be found of the Heathkit Hero line, and many, many more than the Maxx Steele programmable robot!), so the price will go up accordingly (around $300-400, sometimes $500) on the bid. I got mine for the trade of a 486 a few years back - but I got lucky.
And if you find a Topo, or an Androbot - please let me know...
My apologies!
What I meant to express was that files would not have been renamed or deleted, excepting those owned by the user (either in the user's "home" directory, or elsewhere in the system) and having write permissions turned "on".
You have a point in that the "virus" could be propagated via the contact/email list being available to it, due to that list being owned by the user. However, damage to the system as a whole (or potential damage - ILOVEYOU could have easily overwritten DLL's or such to cause major problems) would not be possible - only things owned by the user logged in would be affected.
The only time the "virus" would have access to other user's files if if those other users gave access to the user running the "virus" to see them - as long as the directory and file permissions are set properly, this would not be a problem. Other than if the user ran as root...
Of course, this all comes back to responsibilty - the user should be responsible enough NOT to use the system as root, except in extreme cases, and to have set permissions properly on his files, and for other users to have done the same. Unfortunately, as I said before, society seems to think it better to point fingers, rather than owning up to problems...
Hey, I would love a Sol or an Altair to toggle code into - no problem here.
I don't think computers "breed" ignorant users. I think society does. Somehow, through some mechanism (many would call it the public school system, but I am sure there are other factors - consumerism comes to mind), society has allowed ignorance to be "OK" (as well as laziness, because one has to be motivated to move beyond spoon-feeding).
As far as cars are concerned - yes, I think it is a failing that many people don't really know how their car works - not even at a conceptual level. Most can't even begin to imagine how a car works, or how they could build their own "simple" vehicle, if they had to. Society has a problem when it is deemed better to push responsibility of a problem, such as fixing a flat, onto someone at the far end of a cel-phone conversation - rather than getting the jack and tire, and doing it yourself.
Certain problems I can understand - I am not saying everyone should do everything themselves (no home surgery, or major auto repairs, for instance - unless that person REALLY wants to). But certain things - taking apart and putting things back together, or learning a simple structuring and organization system, or cooking a cheese sandwich - one should either know how to do these things, or be willing to learn.
My landlord, who is a very old man, wanted me to explain computers to him in terms he could understand. As we were talking, he asked me if the reason why he wasn't getting it was because he was stupid about such things. I told him "No, I don't believe you to be stupid - I would rather have you asking me the questions, being truely interested in expanding your knowledge - rather than pretending things were too complicated, and burying your head in the sand".
That man is, by far, smarter and wiser than many of my "peers".
In the past several days, I have read many accounts as to why this virus spread, as well as for/against reasons as to whether or not this could happen on the Linux platform. Everything I have read seems to indicate that this "virus" (I would prefer the term "trojan" as being more accurate) relied on two seperate things existing in order to propagate: 1) That of the user clicking on the attachment to "run" it, and 2) Outlook being installed (for the sake of the address book).
In other words, this could have happened on a Linux box, had such a thing as Outlook existed for Linux (although I think damage would still have been minimal, since the user should be running as a user, and not as root). Now, if the user was using some other email client, and clicked on the attachment, if it wasn't Outlook, nothing happened (not that the code couldn't have been written to take this in account, however, such modifications to the code would have made it much more complicated).
So, for this particular case, what we have here is not a software problem, but a societal problem. If the code auto-executed, or used some blatent hole or "feature" of Windoze, that would be one thing. However, it didn't.
Our current society (which many geeks are not a part of - we dwell within it, but we generally don't subscribe to it's beliefs) is one in which limited attention span, a need to quickly satiate desires without thinking about consequences of action, and a lack of responsibility - has caused such manifestations of chaos.
Society's limited attention span has caused the forgetting of history, in society's mind, about such past transgressions such as the Morris Internet Worm (which I remember as being newsworthy, but I wasn't on the Net at the time, to be affected by it's "destructiveness"), MS-DOS viruses, and the Melissa Email "virus".
Society's need to quickly satiate desires, without thinking about ramifications of actions, allow for such acts to continue, over and over again - because it seems like the reward should be obtained at any cost (or it should just be obtained, without thought to what hooks are buried within). Sort of like ordering a Big Mac meal at Mc Donald's - "Would you like to upsize that?" they ask, and when you say "No!" (being a geek), they look at you like "Aww, don't you want an extra cup of grease to go with that fatburger?" - you know what the hooks are, but most people see "Wow, more for less than the cost of it seperately! I'll take it!" (on a side note, this reminds me of a Jack in the Box trick - a couple of their meals are wierd; if you order one of the meals, and then a seperate sandwich, which has it's own meal, it is cheaper than getting that same sandwich as a meal, and the sandwich of the other original meal seperately - only by a few pennies, mind you - but imagine thousands of people doing this every day, without nary a thought about it - instant money).
Finally, society's lack of responsibility is what is ultimately responsible. Someone, somewhere (and if we believe the reports and source code, that "somewhere" is the Phillipines) has said to themselves "I am not going to be responsible to myself or my feelings - I am NOT going to work out my problems. I am instead GOING TO LASH OUT, and send this scourge upon the world!", the outpouring of a 3-year old's tantrum.
Why does society let this continue? Why isn't society educating itself to deal with problems that occur in the individual's life, rather than blaming the other guy (and in the end, making the lawyers rich)? Why does society always need a "quick fix" - why doesn't it step back, and realize that what it has is actually pretty damn good?
Why does society continue to forget, and repeat history - has society not learned the maxim?
Answer these questions, and fix the problems - and I bet many of the current issues facing us today, simply disappear.
"Brenda, where did you put that report?"
"Oh, gee - I dunno, the typewriter?"
Rather than "The report is in the file cabinet marked 1966, filed under reports, sub-filed May..." or whatever other system was in use.
One thing I wondered about the whole Y2K scenario (ya know, everything stops working), is that everyone was saying "We'll just use pencil and paper!" - except, if no one knows what a directory tree structure is or how it is used, how can they begin to figure out a file cabinet organization system (which is all directory trees really are - virtual file cabinets)?
What I find really amusing is the secretary (or other lamer) who can figure out a filing cabinet organizing system - but fails to understand a directory tree - it is like they sit in front of a computer, and go stupid!
For how things work:
How Things Work by Louis A. Bloomfield, Professor of Physics, The University of Virginia
Great site, in-depth answers - lots to get a person thinking!
You know, everywhere I go, where computer access is needed, and the enviroment is dirty (oil change place, mechanic's, auto zone, checker, etc - hell, any car place - many hospitals, warehouses, etc), there seems to always be a VT100 terminal sitting around, working just fine. Many have missing keys, or the printed characters on the keyboards are rubbed off - or they are covered by a rubber skin over the keyboard that is an ugly brownish yellow. Are these terminals nearly indestructable?
One use for mathematics I have always found handy has been for those stupid "how many jelly beans are in the jar" contests...
One can usually get fairly close via figuring out how many jelly beans will fit into the area of the jar's cross section (sometimes they make the jar round to make it more difficult, but hey, A=PI(r^2) for a circle - no sweat), then multiplying by the number of "thicknesses" of the jellybeans that the jar is in height (if you understood that, then you know what I am saying), to get a number that is close. Add a little fudge factor ('cause those damn jelly beans never manage line up properly in even layers, like they would in an ideal system), and you're set.
Sometimes a jar/vase is used with varying area cross sections - these can be figured out individually, then totalled at the end.
Heaven forbid they use a sphere (oh no - spherical volumes - don't make me work).
Of course, I may be just too much of a geek...
Then again - anybody got ideas/info on obtaining better values for this kind of close fit problem?
Actually, look into old towns/old mining towns of the American West in the late 1800's, and the history of "shady ladies" (so called, because of many towns passing laws requiring "ladies of the night" to walk on the shaded sides of the street only). You will find that many of these women would pass out "invitation" cards to clients and prospective clients, that featured nude poses of various sorts (a good collection can be found in Tombstone, Arizona - none of it is hardcore. Most of the collection would look right at home in a Playboy. The pictures are quite artistic, and show a lot of skill on the parts of the photographer and "model").
I am sure porn has been around longer than that though, probably for as long as mankind could create art.
This is what I can't figure out about this whole case:
MP3.COM copies 80,000 songs to the MP3 format. This is Fair Use (they own the CDs - provided they didn't throw them away after they copied them). MP3.COM is allowed to make a copy under the HRA.
Now, they make these copies available to the public. If this was a free-for-all, anyone-can-download-a-song system, then they would be in violation. But no, they set up a system, as best as they can, to have the user, who wants to get a copy (or stream the song) to listen to, to provide their CD, which they purchased, which has the song on it. That individual can now get the MP3 of the song they wanted from MP3.COM.
In essence, MP3.COM is providing a CD ripping service, in which you have to prove you own the CD (hey, not everyone has the time or space to rip CD tracks). Granted, their system wasn't perfect, but it was a good effort - probably the only workable effort with current technology.
True, they allowed multiple people to listen/download the same tracks at one time - but these people owned the CD - they could have, if they had the time, ripped the track(s) themselves, legally under the HRA and Fair Use.
Somehow, what this ruling is saying, seems to be that if a user owns a CD, but gets the ripped MP3 track from someone else, that track - even if ripped from an identical CD - is not the same track, and is illegal. This is wrong - bits are bits are bits (of course, then you get some shmoe saying, well the conversion was lossy and not the same, see these random bits of noise here - etc, if you catch my meaning).
MP3.COM wasn't allowing a free for all - the service they offered was a good one, for those people without the time, space, or skill to rip their own CD's...
Well, AC - whoever you are - thank you!
For years I have tried to find out more information on the Antipodal Bomber, the only reference being some book I had checked out long ago from the library when I was a kid - I thought I might have dreamt the whole thing. Thank you for restoring my sanity!
BTW, this is what I live to see on the web - not all the commercial shit that is out there, but honest sites bringing cool information - information that is hard or impossible to find otherwise...
Ya beat me to it!
Well, here is another link for it, anyhow:
http://www.cynergi.net/exportsql/
Yeah - garage sales can be great, though they tend to be a pain to search out, unless you like that kind of thing (I admit it, I do)...
Just a couple of months ago I was in San Diego cruising yard sales, and managed to pick up a P200MMX with 64 Meg EDO (2-32 Meg SIMMs) and a 24x EIDE CD-ROM drive (no video card or hard drive, but the case was pretty nice), as well as the drivers and manuals for the motherboard and such - all for $50.00! The person selling it obviously didn't know it's value (the RAM alone should have sold for $50). This was a once-in-a-lifetime deal, and has to be an aberration in the whole scheme of things, so I never expect to see this kind of thing again (of course, there was the one time I bought a machine for the case, thinking it was a 386, and it turned out to be a P100 with 16 meg - all for $15.00). Maybe I am lucky...
So, what happened to the P200 box? Well, let's just say it makes a sweet SuSE box now...
Access Micro has one on this page called the "AOC FINGER TRACKBALL" that seems kinda interesting.
Two buttons on the top near the trackball, and one "trigger-style" for your index finger. The trackball (and top buttons) are controlled with your thumb.
It doesn't seem like a good trackball for use at the desktop level, since you have to "fit" your hand around it. However, it seems perfect as a navigation tool for a virtual environment (may be good for Quake, too!). I bought one of these for just that purpose (VE nav, not Quake)...
Has anybody here dealt with graphics performance under Perl? Specifically under X?
I am wanting to undertake a project using X to develop a 3D engine (and I don't want to reinvent the wheel too much here, though I do want it to be a learning experience - I figure I will use OpenGL), and I am wondering if Perl can do this at a reasonable speed (I am not looking for 100 FPS with a bazillion texture mapped polys - though this would be cool). If not, what would be the best way?
Should I do what I planned to do in the first place (using C/C++ and OpenGL), or is there a combo of using Perl and C/C++ I could/should do?
Finally, what about handling non-standard devices (like custom home-brewed interface boards)? How can Perl handle those?
I am just looking for advice so I don't head down the wrong road to find a dead end...
I have asked other companies (generally via an email comment) in the past if they plan to do anything using Linux, and invariably the reply I tend to get (if I get one), is the equivalent of "No, we do not plan to pursue that".
When I get that reply, I tend to chuckle, and think to myself "oh, yes you will", and much to my suprise (gasp!), several months later the very same company announces a product, or does something productive for the Linux crowd.
Now, I understand that some of these denials I was given may have been a way to just divert me, so I wouldn't be able to divulge details to competition. However, some companies are so dead-set against Linux in their replies, that I wonder what they don't see that I do?
Why is it that I can see the tide turning, and they can't? Why do they come late into the game (sometimes after what they offer isn't even needed anymore)?
Or am I seeing something that isn't really there?
This may be what you want...
http://www.directron.com/bookpc.html
Most of the stuff I have seen tend to be on the order of "write the app for the server, then telnet in - ssh for the paranoid". While this definitely isn't the most pretty solution, it is one that works. Reporting could be handled by a multitude of options, but an easy one is to send the output to a file, then have the user download and print it on their end.
Not pretty, not pretty at all - but it gets the job done. This solution could be updated somewhat via an HTML interface and some Perl CGI magic, maybe with a little Javascript for client-side verification of data (prior to the "submit"). Build report CGI to spit out web pages, and have the user print those (long inventory reports could be a bitch though, do the download thing here).
Main thing is, the more complicated you make it (and generally, making it "snazzier" makes it more complicated), the more likely it is to break - and you don't want it to break. You especially don't want it to break only on certain clients, where you have to take a trip out to see what is happening. By keeping everything on the server (via telnet/ssh), you nearly eliminate this (except for the crazy client that wants to use ADDS ViewPoint emul for VT220 output - grrr)...
These guys will probably be getting an order from me soon for a monitor! This seems like a great place for low cost stuff!
I am shaking my head sadly...
While interesting that someone (or a group) is actually thinking about doing this, I tend to wonder if they have looked into any prior art...
The closest any group has come to creating a mecha (aside from the GE Hardiman suit), has been the Ohio State University Walking Truck (I don't think they called it that, but that is what it looked like). The system had multiple legs (six), and a computer controlled adaptive walking gait system, with sensors on the legs and feet. The "driver" sat up front in a "cab". The whole thing was run by a small engine driving a generator and hydraulic pump.
The only other device I know of that is like a mech is the Robosaurus.
In both cases (ok, all three if you count the Hardiman), the cost to build the systems was immense. In the end (well, with the exception of Robosaurus), all were "scrapped". Nothing more ever came out of them.
MPS thinks that somehow they will create a walking mech, that is able to balance properly and be drivable - and do it out of a garage? Don't get me wrong - I wish these guys luck, but unless some of them worked with SRL at one point in their lives, I don't think it is going to happen. I would be impressed if they were able to build a functioning LEGO version (building prototype leg devices don't count - and yes, I know people have created bipedal walking LEGO machines).
If they could build a bipedal LEGO machine that walked in a figure-8, I would believe they stand a chance in hell of building a full size device. But doing so would mean that they have (in a garage, no less), beat out the likes of GE, Honda, OSU, and DOD - who have near unlimited resources, and developed a drivable, bipedal walking machine.
I know that it only took one college student to kick off the whole Linux thing - but this is a totally different matter - one that encompasses everything from robotics to AI to engineering to materials science (that steel better be damn strong for the forces it will encounter!), through a number of other disciplines.
Hey guys! Prove me wrong - one last thing, I was born and raised in Bako, so I would be damn proud to see the first true mech walk outta there...
I know others have stated it, but...
...another urban legend.
This is a "self-referential" UL - that is, an urban legend being refuted with... tada!
Most urban legends don't give specific names, or dates, or places. Most tend to be short.
This particular one happens to be very long, but sadly, it is still an urban legend. However, it does make an interesting story - it is well written (not the best prose on the planet, but a good yarn!), and keeps you reading and laughing all the way through. The proof of it being an urban legend is the lack of important details (like names, for instance - of places for one).
I have to say, someone had a lot of time on his hands!
But plenty expensive, too. Look into solar panels for RV's - many of these are quite large, and can be adapted easily. You will need a large voltage regulator and a battery bank as well - and if you are planning on running 110VAC, an inverter (many people just buy 12 or 24 volt appliances, instead). You can easily spend several 10's of thousands of dollars on a system.
Look into wind power options as well (if you have an ample breeze blowing). If you live near the border of Mexico (near a border town), sometimes resellers of solar solutions hang out on the US side (esp if there are RV camps near the border town).
Building a solar panel for heating water is almost trivial - a bit of copper pipe, some plywood and two by foors, and black paint (plus a sheet of glass) is about all you need. You can build a pretty good system to tie into your home heating system for less than $500 (and remember, you might be able to take a tax break as well).
Final note - it is possible to build a house and COOL it using a passive solar solution. The trick is the house has a large chimney which is heated by the sun. As the hot air rises, it draws in cooler air through the windows, or through vents with water evap pads (similar to a swamp cooler). Not great for places like Lousianna, but for desert areas without too much humidity, it is almost free cooling.