Actually, is this really true? I mean, perhaps at one time it was - but I was googling the other day and looked up "tower colocation" - apparently, in some manner, it is possible to colo on a tower, renting "space" on the tower (I was looking to see if this was possible in the instance of WiFi mesh networks). This seems to be something real...
As the AC posted, you power the entire process using the fuel made from the hemp. Yeah, you have to bootstrap the process from some other source - but you have to do that with *any* new source of energy, and it has already been done (Canada currently has several hemp fuel production plants)...
What kind of speakers did you use? From the HOW-TO posted by someone else, they mentioned ultrasonic transducers epoxied to the flask, and an ultrasonic microphone (not the same as "speakers" and a "microphone"). Can you get by with regular speakers? Can you use something else more common (piezo drivers?) - while I can probably find surplus US transducers around here, not everyone can.
Could you use some high-power piezo tweeter drivers (minus any horns and such)? BTW - could you replicate this experiment more accurately if you used acetone instead of water (it would have deterium in it, only hydrogen - but maybe brightness would be better?)...?
Many of the issues surrounding ethanol and/or biodiesel production are lowered or removed if instead of using the typical crops for such production (corn and soybean), we use hemp.
Since it is a nitrogen fixating crop, nitrogen-based fertilizers would not be needed (such fertilizers are generally made from fossil fuel sources). Since hemp is naturally pest and disease resistant, herbacides and pesticides would not be needed (both of which are produced from oil). Used in rotation with other food crops (where possible to grow), use fertilizers, pesticides and herbacides for those crops would be reduced and/or eliminated.
The one great thing about bio-fuels over fossil fuels is that while both give off emmissions (though bio-fuels are typically lower), only bio-fuels close the carbon cycle (ie, carbon mono/dioxides) - whereas fossil fuels release the stored carbon back into the envioronment.
I tend to wonder if I will ever see hemp-based biofuel production in the US in my lifetime - I just recieved a letter back from one of my state reps about hemp and biofuel production, and I wasn't very impressed...
BTW - there are an absolute ton of ways to 3D track - cameras, LEDs, magnetics, ultrasonic, lasers. Cost also depends on whether you want X/Y/Z or orientation (yaw/pitch/roll) - or both. Typically, getting orientation is easier and cheaper than getting position (usually just using accelerometers and compass type equipment). Position requires some way to get measurements. Typically, if you can get position, you can also get orientation with a little more work - but separating out the two becomes difficult (plus, factor in noise levels) - which is why Polhemus and others are so expensive (that, plus they have niche markets, and they make the interface so easy to deal with - typically, their trackers output x/y/z/yaw/pitch/roll as a simple serial stream over RS-232 or USB - just plug it in and parse the stream, typically CSV or space-sep values).
I am not asking this to be malicious, I am merely curious as to the circumstances and reasons. So:
What is a truck driver doing on/.?
I know that trucking has gotten more "high-tech" - truckers are carrying laptops, checking the internet, sending email to loved ones at home via 802.11b at the "local" Travel America center. But what brought you to slashdot?
It is cool to look at (although he should have gone with aluminum bar stock or something else for the diagonal brace - the L-stock looks ghetto), but yet again it is a cluster which seems to not have a use!
I mean, nowhere did I see what he plans on using this thing for. Distributed database system? Near real-time POV rendering (yeah, right - not with those underpowered and too-few nodes)? Protein folding calculations? Something else?
This isn't unique - not by a long shot. The original SETI Stompmonster did it cleaner (can't find any links to it, though), and at least it was for SETI@Home crunching.
I have thought many times about building such a machine myself, but I have yet to come up with a good reason to have one (other than to ooh and ahh over). SETI@Home and Folding@Home (is there such a thing), and distributed POV are cool applications of such a machine, but what other real-world, useful applications for the home user exist for a parallel processing machine (that would conceivably justify the expense)? I am not saying they don't exist (hell, the learning experience of setting up such a machine would be worthwhile), but they are definitely few.
I guess I am just the kind of person who looks for a problem before coming up with a solution to solve it (hammer and nails, hammer and nails)...
If you have a full duplex card (who doesn't?), run the line-out to the line-in, and rip/encode/record that. Or, set up another computer for the recording. Since it is only an audio program, quality shouldn't be a big concern.
If you want to see what I am currently doing, and have done in the past - check out my website. My current big project is fixing my 1979 Bronco - but that is just basic mechanic-type work. My real project is building a recumbent electric "vehicle" from bicycle parts. Recently I built an electric motor (that I toasted) using paperclips (though I don't consider it a "hack", because I followed directions in an old Time-Life book). Long time ago, I "hacked" a PowerGlove to hook up to my Amiga, then to my PC, and recently got it working under Linux (using this one guy's driver code). I have had recent thoughts on a variety of internal and external combustion engines (one a two-cycle alcohol engine, the other a simple Sterling engine). I helped bring together a community of people hacking the Acer NT-150 settop box. Recently I was digging through my old junk from my youth when I had a TRS-80 Color Computer - found an old "light gun" I had built using a CDS cell, a toiletpaper tube, a small lens, and a spring for the trigger - hooked it all to the joystick port, and it worked OK. I could go on, and on - but suffice to say, I have hacked hardware nearly my entire life, and I don't plan to stop anytime soon...
I fully agree with you there - plus, as the cars travelled around the track, they would scuff it up, making it more difficult to control. I suppose the IR control might be "pumped up" (think non-columinated IR laser) - though that could be dangerous...
Not necessarily - the track is clear tubing, and if there are sensors all over the "cars", it should be able to pick up the commands regardless of position or orientation.
I have three books on NLP - Frogs into PRINCES (by Richard Bandler and John Grinder - ISBN 0-911226-19-2), TRANCE-formations (by same - ISBN 0-911226-23-0), and Using Your Brain for a CHANGE (by Richard Bandler - ISBN 0-911226-27-3). These were all published between 1979-1985 - and are easily among the most strange of books I have in my occult collection.
I found them at a garage sale at a house in Escondio, CA - being sold by a family that as far as I could tell, spoke no english at all. The titles and the covers looked interesting, and the subtitles detailing "Neuro-Linguistic Programming" seemed like they would fit right into my occult collection anyhow, so I purchased them.
As I said, the covers were interesting - all of the book's covers have a strange, near psychedelic flavor to them - fanciful images of dragons and wizards (though the last book, which has the latest publication date, drops this look in favor of a more refined outdoor scene of gloomy mountains in the backdrop, a green meadow with colorful flowers and a waterfall in the foreground, with a "transparent" profile of a person where everything is tinted "lighter" through it). I only got about halfway through what I thought was likely the first book (being of the earliest publication date), "Frogs into PRINCES". I believe this to be the only book I have ever read that screwed with my mind, in a very strange way.
As I was reading it, I was also trying to use some of the techniques, because they seemed like very powerful tools, for both internal and external use. As an example, one of these tools involved recognizing body language, and using that in opposition to what you were saying (simple example, nodding your head "yes" while discussing something in a negative tone, or disagreeing with someone) - this was a tool by which you could convey information to others to stimulate them to perform certain things in a certain manner. There were other techniques of a similar nature, some which you could use internally.
As I read, my SO (now my wife) was telling my that I was changing - that I acted differently since starting to read the book. She asked me to stop reading the book, which I did, because I could feel this change as well - and it bothered me. After I stopped reading the book, I felt that a curtain or something had lifted, like a slight fog or something.
Now, I realize that this is just a anecdotal story, and that it carries no weight from an objective standpoint - take it as you will. I have kept these books, though, and I intend one day to try reading them again, knowing my prior experience.
What you describe of NLP I never got to in the books - perhaps it was in a later chapter or in one of the other volumes which I didn't read? The technique, though, sounds like something from NLP. I still don't know what or why these books are - they seem like self-help books, but if they tend to affect others like they did me, I wonder just what NLP really is about - and what its ultimate use could be? Personally, I wasn't looking for a self-help or self-change book - but I was interested in the idea of "hacking my mind", so to speak (yeah, I know that sounds like a contradiction. I was only looking for changing myself in a controlled manner for the hell of it and to learn how to do it in a different manner, not because I felt I needed it - probably not a good reason, now that I look back on it)...
I recently received from my work an old IBM NetStation Type 8361 (110) that I wanted to figure out how to get going under Linux. Doing a little googling and research, I found out that this was possible, but that to get it fully functioning, you had to download and install a special server daemon that IBM supplied. The FAQ/HOW-TO I found listed some links, but they were 404'ed. Searching on IBM's site would bring up info on current NetStation models, but nothing on the older stuff. I decided to try to see if their tech support would help.
Now, in my experience, most of the time when you ask companies about an old and outdated product, they just say "sorry, not supported anymore". Doubly so if you didn't buy it from them, or got it used somehow. Especially if it is a rather niche market that didn't bear out (ie, enterprise-wide network diskless workstations from the late 90's). I expected just such a response from IBM - that, or they wouldn't tell me because I didn't have a service contract or something with them.
Imagine my surprise when a few days later I got an email stating where the software, and all of the documentation (PDF format) was located at - for two different service updates. The software consisted of a tar.gz file and an ISO of TurboLinux 7.0 (though supposedly the installer for the software will work for other distros of the period as well - but you still need the TL distro because it downloads some piece from it when installing). I have yet to try it out, but I am surprised I got a response at all!
Now I am praying I will get something close to that support when I receive a Virtuality HMD I got off of eBay (now, this is a loooongshot) - hopefully cyberminds.uk will help, plus I am hoping to get some support from polhemus on an old ISA tracking card and sensor that is coming with the HMD (I don't think I am getting the transmitter for the tracker - so I am hoping to dig one up some other way).
I would like to give you some advice, that may actually help you. But, like all advice, take it with a grain of salt. Anyhow - in your pursuits study anything and everything, even if it is only tangentally related. Study to learn to think, and when you are done with schooling, continue to study, and to learn - never stop reading and learning. Take every oppourtunity to learn something new.
With that in mind, you need to think of what you want to do with your learning in the real world. Personally, I would be looking into getting a few low-level biology courses in, then studying (outside of school, because it won't be taught at CC level) bioinformatics. I would also be studing network theory and how it relates to that (or, if biology and such doesn't interest you, study it alone and think about how what you learn applies to the real world, and how that could be leveraged) - read Linked by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi.
As I have noted in other/. comments, I personally think network theory coupled with compexity theory, and Wolfram's ANKOS will lead to many interesting and practical applications in many areas of science and life - however, more people need to be studying all of this together in order to apply it.
Interesting. I attended HTI during the 1991-92 year (yeah, that long ago). I graduated with the piece of paper (computer repair technician shit), and while going there it helped me land my first development job, and later (after I graduated), secured it as a full time coding position (they wouldn't hire someone without a degree of some sort - I started as an operator changing 9-track tapes on an old manual machine and running reports). From there I have gained my current position.
I do have to admit that I have never used anything I learned there at any of my employers. I knew enough about coding from programming on my own prior to that. What they did teach me (though it wasn't the purpose of the course), was electronics design, and how to properly wield a soldering iron and use a meter (and oscope, etc). With these skills I have done several personal projects (robotics and VR interfacing experiments, mainly) - so I don't think I have wasted my time. Another individual from a slightly later time frame runs a website dedicated (moreso than mine) to homebrew VR and experiments, and has designed and built several interesting VR devices and interfaces.
None of this, though, has anything to do with coding. What I wonder is, has HTI changed radically from when I went? Do they still teach component level electronics, troubleshooting, repair (and to a much smaller extent), design? Or have they gone over all the way to teaching you to be a "board swap monkey"? When I went, the class on board swapping they would simulate failures by really mucking the machine (taping card edge pins on boards to simulate opens, removing or resetting jumpers, etc) - but we also learned how to interface at the component level with the CPU via the bus (on an old 286, and later an Amiga - 68000 cpu for industrial controls) - creating all sorts of weird devices. In the last class, I remember the instructor working with one student on designing and building a laser range finder, using bar-graph LED blocks as a linear light sensor by reverse biasing them - talk about wires everywhere! I wish I had a picture. We investigated computer vision systems by building a circuit to interface a board with an 8x8 array of phototrasistors to an amiga, which we then had to write C code to poll the parallel port and display the template being laid on the board to show what it "saw", then "react" based on what template was shown.
Do they still do that - or has it completely changed? I remember that some of the projects in classes seemed very stupid, and some seemed cool. All of my instructors were cool about it, they knew my level, and would allow me (and any other like me) alternate assignments for the grade - but we still had to study, take, and pass the tests.
As far as the drafting/CAD stuff was concerned, I remember one of the projects they had to do was re-create plans for the construction of one of OWI's Movit robots - the Memocon Crawler. This is greatly on-par with the remote control car design you talked about. I remember other people did other complicated mechanical design projects as well - rarely did anyone do a simple house or such, most did mechanical CAD design...
I read Da Vinci Code, and I considered it an "ok" book. Fluffy, fast, but reasonably accurate, and I could tell he had done some research.
I only knew this because I own and have read a lot of "occult" material - that is, I have plenty of books on Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Shroud of Turin, plus Roslin, Kabbalah, several books on Leonardo Da Vinci, etc. In short, this book could have been researched from my library, for the most part.
So, I knew about all of this beforehand, and it makes for an interesting book to me, no matter how you spin it. But Dan Brown didn't write a "Foucault's Pendulum" - he isn't Umberto Eco, but then again, I wasn't expecting that.
I also wasn't expecting how popular this book has been! I can't believe the amount of buzz it generated. I don't understand why it generated the buzz, when other people have written non-fiction, conspiracy-style books that are well written and researched (physically, something I only wish I had the resources to do) - about real places other people can go and check out for themselves (and, several authors of these type books *have* done this). Why didn't these books, these real facts (!), cause the same buzz? Why did it take a work of fiction?
Why has there been a buzz at all? Have any of you noticed how there seems to be more people losing their reasoning capabilities and latching onto spirituality "stuff"? Have you noticed the number of TV shows that are invoking demons and angels left and right (and not in a humerous over-the-top manner like Buffy)? Also, have you noticed how the metaphysical side of things is using "tech"-like words to describe things, and the pervasiveness of using computers and such for everything from meditation to assisting in crystal light therapy and such?
None of it makes any sense! It is feeling like Carl Sagan's "Demon Haunted World" is becoming the default, and if you aren't a believer, something is wrong with *you*!
These are supposed adults - who openly laugh at the idea of a real Santa Claus or Easter Bunny, but have no problem with the idea of a "supreme being in the sky with angels" or a "place of fire and brimstone and demons"...
Was Jesus a real person? Based on my research, yeah - I think Jesus was a real person (or more likely, *persons*). For his time, he had radical ideas, ideas which upset many and made many fearful of him and his followers. I think he taught many good lessons. I am sure he said and did things that have been ommitted/purged in the standard texts - he was only a person, after all. But I am not going to believe he was anything more than this. We should be amazed and happy that such a person(s) existed. We should recognize in a broad manner these same traits when we see them in our own times. But worship them? No - that is a waste of time and effort. We should instead take their words and deeds, and know them in whole, and apply that to our lives. It is entirely possible to be agnostic/atheist/whatever - and be a good and just person.
I have and help set up a group for hacking an old set top box made by Acer. Inside was a nearly bog standard PC motherboard. It had all the regular parts of a motherboard. There was one ISA slot (used for a modem or NIC). There was a header for a COM port (you had to add a particular Maxim SMT part to get it to work - most people used it for a mouse). It came with its own wireless keyboard, and used a AMD 586/133 for the CPU. IIRC, it had 8 meg of RAM. It also had a smart-card reader. All packaged in a slick, small TIVO-like case. It ran QNX originally, but we got it booting DOS, Win9x, and Linux in the end (oh, there was also a header inside for an IDE drive - one could mount either a small laptop drive inside, or a PCMCIA/flash drive). The original purpose of this box was to act like a Web-TV type system, also it could read data in the VBI to give it links/commands to go to a special server that could display web pages based on the show, or semi-transparent overlays, etc. There was also a remote, now that I think about it. Basically, the only thing that survives to this day of it is the software - it is used by many cable companies (I know Cox uses it with their digital settop boxes).
A speed trap is any time there is a radar cop or camera set up in such a position to catch you speeding, when you don't have reasonable time to slow down.
For example, in and around many small towns cops set up these traps as "revenue generators", sometimes on a semi-permanent basis! Basically, you will be on a road that is say marked for 55 MPH, then as you come into town, the road will be marked as 35 MPH. Well, that is all fair and good if there is enough room between the markings (signs) to slow down safely (ie, coast or light braking).
Many times, though, you will see these signs set 50 to 100 feet apart! Nowhere near enough time. The cop or radar camera will be behind a bush (or some other hidden niche) somewhere in the vicinity of the second sign, generally right after it. If you are 5 MPH more or over the 35 MPH limit (many are, especially if you are out of town or driving through) - bam, you are hit with a ticket.
Photo radar galls people more because of the lack of a human element. Many times, you see these things on the side of a freeway. Say you are doing 80 MPH in a 75 MPH zone, in the middle lane - maybe fluctuating between 80 and 81 (or you got new different size tires and didn't have your speedometer adjusted). The freeway is newly paved, you are driving a well-tuned family sedan with good tires and pressure, no one else around you for a couple of miles. Any person with common sense would say you are only being a danger to yourself, if anyone. I would say if you passed a cop, he might pull you over and give you a warning to slow down, or a small ticket at best. The photo radar machine? BUSTED - for whatever the local government can get out of you. Heck, they might even jack it up a bit, because by the time you get the mail, you are already home, they are far away, and you have NO WAY to prove the conditions. At least with a cop, you can talk with him - treat him nice and he will probably let you off with the warning.
This is why people call them traps - because that is what they generally are.
It seems that the better our 3D first person games get, the more push there is for the goal of total immersion. Why it has taken this long, I don't know. The graphics are there, but the means to immerse oneself into them are not. Gamers are finding they want more, but they are also find that to get it, they will have to spend some dough.
Enter multiple monitors. This is a good solution, but gamers will likely find that the solution may be unwieldy and expensive. Furthermore, it will still lack the depth that they seek to immerse themselves into the game. Lastly, the edges of the monitors will ultimately get in the way, though this is a minor problem compared to the expense and the need for a large desk.
One thing that is rarely discussed or seen is how to get better depth from a single (or multi) monitor setup. The way to do it, which the simulator industry has done for years, is by using a collimated display. These displays work by taking the light output of a monitor, and forcing it to be more parallel, resulting in an increase of depth and immersion. However, these displays are typically expensive, due to the specialized optics (and niche market, of course). How can a home user do this themselves?
Enter the fresnel lens - using such a lens (page magnifier), obtained from just about anywhere (or, alternatively, if you are willing to spend the money, buy a good one from Edmund Scientific Optics). Flashback on the "100 inch" TV projector projects (some would say scams), then flashback further to the AcidWarp projector box from DOS days, and even further back to the large fresnel lens TV magnifiers - you start to get the idea. Then, go to this page, and read it. Get immersed!
Regarding HMDs - for good immersion you will want one with at least 60 degrees horizontal FOV, ideally with a high resolution. Such HMDs exist, but they are expensive, very expensive. Even lower res (ie, 640x480 or 800x600) will set you back some coin, especially if you buy new. If you want to play with HMDs, it is probably best to buy used (every now and then pro-level HMDs appear on Ebay for a fraction of what they cost new - recently, several Virtuality HMDs went up - I have also purchased a CyberEye CE-200M on Ebay before as well, with 3DOF magnetic head tracker, for around $300.00). You can also go the homebrew route - use small TFT LCD TVs mounted to a hardhat headband, with credit-card size fresnel lenses as magnifiers. Likely your first tries will be abject failures, but subsequent modding will yield a reasonable HMD for little monetary outlay (but lots of invested time). Back in the day, PCVR magazine ran lots of articles on this - information on building homebrew HMDs seems to have faded from the collective memory. You won't get the resolution or the FOV of a high-end HMD, but you can easily approach, and in many-ways exceed, that of low to lower-mid level HMDs, if you only try...
I don't know where you live, likely it isn't in Phoenix, Arizona. However, for those of us who do live there, two places for lab (and much, much, more) surplus are:
Apache Reclamation and Electronics (3rd Ave and Apache) - they carry a bunch of junk, right now they have a lot of microscopes, plus a small amount of glassware (ie, test tubes, beakers, etc - plus glass rod and tubing). They also have lots of other funky stuff which you might find useful, and so far no one has purchased the industrial CO2 laser they have...
The second place is Equipment Exchange at 515 East Grant Street (behind BOB) - you name it, they probably have it or can get it for you. Large stereo microscopes for semiconductor inspection - no problem (one entire room of them!). Need a working electron microscope? No problem. Unimate industrial robot arm (size of a small truck) - not an issue! If it has been used in medical, semiconductor, or other lab use - they carry it, no matter how big or small. It is a great place to browse.
Finally, realize that a lot of lab equipment can be homebrewed from around the house, depending on what you are doing. If you want to try this route, pick up a copy of "Granddad's Wonderful Book of Chemistry" from Atlan Formularies. While not current technology, you could probably do a lot with what it shows, plus get you into the mode of thinking unconventionally about doing things - so you aren't beholden to the "accepted methods", which may actually limit you (ie, learn to think outside the box in *all* endevours).
...as well as any other "self-organizing" networks (such as the internet, and the brain) - you would do yourself good to read Albert-Laszlo Barabasi's book "Linked". This book will answer a whole lot of your questions (and in turn, it will inspire a whole slew more).
I have said it before and I will say it again: Taken together, the knowledge within these three books could very well lead to some amazing breakthroughs in many of the sciences, in particular cognitive sciences and genetics. Even if some of the theories prove to be wrong, I think there is enough there to be a springboard for someone else - please read and decide for yourself!
If you want to go further, read "Linked" by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi - they are similar, and their structure (basically nodes aren't randomly connected, but form "islands" and "supernodes", with weak-links between them. Some are isolated, but many link to each other. Due to isolation, however, it isn't possible to completely map by spidering the tree, regardless of the network. Thus, you end up with stuff like the "Invisible Web" - portions of the internet completely isolated from the main cluster. Social networks follow a similar pattern, and I suspect our brain does as well) leads to their robustness.
Re:Why the NYT thinks this is noteworthy...
on
Hack Your Car
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I wasn't really pointing it out from a rodding point of view, but more to the point that they did this - thus it is possible such a "feature" might trickle down to regular consumer model cars. Forget about hot rodding - what about simply changing the oil or replacing the belts?
The idea of "welding the hood shut" will likely become even more entrenched if we see hybrids and electrics become common. Because of the technology (and maybe this is why on the A2) used in such vehicles, manufacturers would want to do this to protect trade secrets and other knowledge from leaking to competitors (which right now go and buy competeting vehicles and tear them down, etc to learn from them).
Regarding your friend's experience - did something happen to the vehicle to make it drop into "limp home" mode, or was this slo-mo mode something entirely different?
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, is this really true? I mean, perhaps at one time it was - but I was googling the other day and looked up "tower colocation" - apparently, in some manner, it is possible to colo on a tower, renting "space" on the tower (I was looking to see if this was possible in the instance of WiFi mesh networks). This seems to be something real...
As the AC posted, you power the entire process using the fuel made from the hemp. Yeah, you have to bootstrap the process from some other source - but you have to do that with *any* new source of energy, and it has already been done (Canada currently has several hemp fuel production plants)...
Could you use some high-power piezo tweeter drivers (minus any horns and such)? BTW - could you replicate this experiment more accurately if you used acetone instead of water (it would have deterium in it, only hydrogen - but maybe brightness would be better?)...?
Since it is a nitrogen fixating crop, nitrogen-based fertilizers would not be needed (such fertilizers are generally made from fossil fuel sources). Since hemp is naturally pest and disease resistant, herbacides and pesticides would not be needed (both of which are produced from oil). Used in rotation with other food crops (where possible to grow), use fertilizers, pesticides and herbacides for those crops would be reduced and/or eliminated.
The one great thing about bio-fuels over fossil fuels is that while both give off emmissions (though bio-fuels are typically lower), only bio-fuels close the carbon cycle (ie, carbon mono/dioxides) - whereas fossil fuels release the stored carbon back into the envioronment.
I tend to wonder if I will ever see hemp-based biofuel production in the US in my lifetime - I just recieved a letter back from one of my state reps about hemp and biofuel production, and I wasn't very impressed...
Juanfh's tracker page
BTW - there are an absolute ton of ways to 3D track - cameras, LEDs, magnetics, ultrasonic, lasers. Cost also depends on whether you want X/Y/Z or orientation (yaw/pitch/roll) - or both. Typically, getting orientation is easier and cheaper than getting position (usually just using accelerometers and compass type equipment). Position requires some way to get measurements. Typically, if you can get position, you can also get orientation with a little more work - but separating out the two becomes difficult (plus, factor in noise levels) - which is why Polhemus and others are so expensive (that, plus they have niche markets, and they make the interface so easy to deal with - typically, their trackers output x/y/z/yaw/pitch/roll as a simple serial stream over RS-232 or USB - just plug it in and parse the stream, typically CSV or space-sep values).
What is a truck driver doing on /.?
I know that trucking has gotten more "high-tech" - truckers are carrying laptops, checking the internet, sending email to loved ones at home via 802.11b at the "local" Travel America center. But what brought you to slashdot?
Or, am I reading too much into this?
I mean, nowhere did I see what he plans on using this thing for. Distributed database system? Near real-time POV rendering (yeah, right - not with those underpowered and too-few nodes)? Protein folding calculations? Something else?
This isn't unique - not by a long shot. The original SETI Stompmonster did it cleaner (can't find any links to it, though), and at least it was for SETI@Home crunching.
I have thought many times about building such a machine myself, but I have yet to come up with a good reason to have one (other than to ooh and ahh over). SETI@Home and Folding@Home (is there such a thing), and distributed POV are cool applications of such a machine, but what other real-world, useful applications for the home user exist for a parallel processing machine (that would conceivably justify the expense)? I am not saying they don't exist (hell, the learning experience of setting up such a machine would be worthwhile), but they are definitely few.
I guess I am just the kind of person who looks for a problem before coming up with a solution to solve it (hammer and nails, hammer and nails)...
If you have a full duplex card (who doesn't?), run the line-out to the line-in, and rip/encode/record that. Or, set up another computer for the recording. Since it is only an audio program, quality shouldn't be a big concern.
Like these guys' website...
If you want to see what I am currently doing, and have done in the past - check out my website. My current big project is fixing my 1979 Bronco - but that is just basic mechanic-type work. My real project is building a recumbent electric "vehicle" from bicycle parts. Recently I built an electric motor (that I toasted) using paperclips (though I don't consider it a "hack", because I followed directions in an old Time-Life book). Long time ago, I "hacked" a PowerGlove to hook up to my Amiga, then to my PC, and recently got it working under Linux (using this one guy's driver code). I have had recent thoughts on a variety of internal and external combustion engines (one a two-cycle alcohol engine, the other a simple Sterling engine). I helped bring together a community of people hacking the Acer NT-150 settop box. Recently I was digging through my old junk from my youth when I had a TRS-80 Color Computer - found an old "light gun" I had built using a CDS cell, a toiletpaper tube, a small lens, and a spring for the trigger - hooked it all to the joystick port, and it worked OK. I could go on, and on - but suffice to say, I have hacked hardware nearly my entire life, and I don't plan to stop anytime soon...
I fully agree with you there - plus, as the cars travelled around the track, they would scuff it up, making it more difficult to control. I suppose the IR control might be "pumped up" (think non-columinated IR laser) - though that could be dangerous...
Not necessarily - the track is clear tubing, and if there are sensors all over the "cars", it should be able to pick up the commands regardless of position or orientation.
I found them at a garage sale at a house in Escondio, CA - being sold by a family that as far as I could tell, spoke no english at all. The titles and the covers looked interesting, and the subtitles detailing "Neuro-Linguistic Programming" seemed like they would fit right into my occult collection anyhow, so I purchased them.
As I said, the covers were interesting - all of the book's covers have a strange, near psychedelic flavor to them - fanciful images of dragons and wizards (though the last book, which has the latest publication date, drops this look in favor of a more refined outdoor scene of gloomy mountains in the backdrop, a green meadow with colorful flowers and a waterfall in the foreground, with a "transparent" profile of a person where everything is tinted "lighter" through it). I only got about halfway through what I thought was likely the first book (being of the earliest publication date), "Frogs into PRINCES". I believe this to be the only book I have ever read that screwed with my mind, in a very strange way.
As I was reading it, I was also trying to use some of the techniques, because they seemed like very powerful tools, for both internal and external use. As an example, one of these tools involved recognizing body language, and using that in opposition to what you were saying (simple example, nodding your head "yes" while discussing something in a negative tone, or disagreeing with someone) - this was a tool by which you could convey information to others to stimulate them to perform certain things in a certain manner. There were other techniques of a similar nature, some which you could use internally.
As I read, my SO (now my wife) was telling my that I was changing - that I acted differently since starting to read the book. She asked me to stop reading the book, which I did, because I could feel this change as well - and it bothered me. After I stopped reading the book, I felt that a curtain or something had lifted, like a slight fog or something.
Now, I realize that this is just a anecdotal story, and that it carries no weight from an objective standpoint - take it as you will. I have kept these books, though, and I intend one day to try reading them again, knowing my prior experience.
What you describe of NLP I never got to in the books - perhaps it was in a later chapter or in one of the other volumes which I didn't read? The technique, though, sounds like something from NLP. I still don't know what or why these books are - they seem like self-help books, but if they tend to affect others like they did me, I wonder just what NLP really is about - and what its ultimate use could be? Personally, I wasn't looking for a self-help or self-change book - but I was interested in the idea of "hacking my mind", so to speak (yeah, I know that sounds like a contradiction. I was only looking for changing myself in a controlled manner for the hell of it and to learn how to do it in a different manner, not because I felt I needed it - probably not a good reason, now that I look back on it)...
Now, in my experience, most of the time when you ask companies about an old and outdated product, they just say "sorry, not supported anymore". Doubly so if you didn't buy it from them, or got it used somehow. Especially if it is a rather niche market that didn't bear out (ie, enterprise-wide network diskless workstations from the late 90's). I expected just such a response from IBM - that, or they wouldn't tell me because I didn't have a service contract or something with them.
Imagine my surprise when a few days later I got an email stating where the software, and all of the documentation (PDF format) was located at - for two different service updates. The software consisted of a tar.gz file and an ISO of TurboLinux 7.0 (though supposedly the installer for the software will work for other distros of the period as well - but you still need the TL distro because it downloads some piece from it when installing). I have yet to try it out, but I am surprised I got a response at all!
Now I am praying I will get something close to that support when I receive a Virtuality HMD I got off of eBay (now, this is a loooongshot) - hopefully cyberminds.uk will help, plus I am hoping to get some support from polhemus on an old ISA tracking card and sensor that is coming with the HMD (I don't think I am getting the transmitter for the tracker - so I am hoping to dig one up some other way).
With that in mind, you need to think of what you want to do with your learning in the real world. Personally, I would be looking into getting a few low-level biology courses in, then studying (outside of school, because it won't be taught at CC level) bioinformatics. I would also be studing network theory and how it relates to that (or, if biology and such doesn't interest you, study it alone and think about how what you learn applies to the real world, and how that could be leveraged) - read Linked by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi.
As I have noted in other /. comments, I personally think network theory coupled with compexity theory, and Wolfram's ANKOS will lead to many interesting and practical applications in many areas of science and life - however, more people need to be studying all of this together in order to apply it.
Become one of the first...
From the tone of your comments here, it sounds like both you and your boss have some maturing left to do...
I do have to admit that I have never used anything I learned there at any of my employers. I knew enough about coding from programming on my own prior to that. What they did teach me (though it wasn't the purpose of the course), was electronics design, and how to properly wield a soldering iron and use a meter (and oscope, etc). With these skills I have done several personal projects (robotics and VR interfacing experiments, mainly) - so I don't think I have wasted my time. Another individual from a slightly later time frame runs a website dedicated (moreso than mine) to homebrew VR and experiments, and has designed and built several interesting VR devices and interfaces.
None of this, though, has anything to do with coding. What I wonder is, has HTI changed radically from when I went? Do they still teach component level electronics, troubleshooting, repair (and to a much smaller extent), design? Or have they gone over all the way to teaching you to be a "board swap monkey"? When I went, the class on board swapping they would simulate failures by really mucking the machine (taping card edge pins on boards to simulate opens, removing or resetting jumpers, etc) - but we also learned how to interface at the component level with the CPU via the bus (on an old 286, and later an Amiga - 68000 cpu for industrial controls) - creating all sorts of weird devices. In the last class, I remember the instructor working with one student on designing and building a laser range finder, using bar-graph LED blocks as a linear light sensor by reverse biasing them - talk about wires everywhere! I wish I had a picture. We investigated computer vision systems by building a circuit to interface a board with an 8x8 array of phototrasistors to an amiga, which we then had to write C code to poll the parallel port and display the template being laid on the board to show what it "saw", then "react" based on what template was shown.
Do they still do that - or has it completely changed? I remember that some of the projects in classes seemed very stupid, and some seemed cool. All of my instructors were cool about it, they knew my level, and would allow me (and any other like me) alternate assignments for the grade - but we still had to study, take, and pass the tests.
As far as the drafting/CAD stuff was concerned, I remember one of the projects they had to do was re-create plans for the construction of one of OWI's Movit robots - the Memocon Crawler. This is greatly on-par with the remote control car design you talked about. I remember other people did other complicated mechanical design projects as well - rarely did anyone do a simple house or such, most did mechanical CAD design...
I only knew this because I own and have read a lot of "occult" material - that is, I have plenty of books on Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Shroud of Turin, plus Roslin, Kabbalah, several books on Leonardo Da Vinci, etc. In short, this book could have been researched from my library, for the most part.
So, I knew about all of this beforehand, and it makes for an interesting book to me, no matter how you spin it. But Dan Brown didn't write a "Foucault's Pendulum" - he isn't Umberto Eco, but then again, I wasn't expecting that.
I also wasn't expecting how popular this book has been! I can't believe the amount of buzz it generated. I don't understand why it generated the buzz, when other people have written non-fiction, conspiracy-style books that are well written and researched (physically, something I only wish I had the resources to do) - about real places other people can go and check out for themselves (and, several authors of these type books *have* done this). Why didn't these books, these real facts (!), cause the same buzz? Why did it take a work of fiction?
Why has there been a buzz at all? Have any of you noticed how there seems to be more people losing their reasoning capabilities and latching onto spirituality "stuff"? Have you noticed the number of TV shows that are invoking demons and angels left and right (and not in a humerous over-the-top manner like Buffy)? Also, have you noticed how the metaphysical side of things is using "tech"-like words to describe things, and the pervasiveness of using computers and such for everything from meditation to assisting in crystal light therapy and such?
None of it makes any sense! It is feeling like Carl Sagan's "Demon Haunted World" is becoming the default, and if you aren't a believer, something is wrong with *you*!
These are supposed adults - who openly laugh at the idea of a real Santa Claus or Easter Bunny, but have no problem with the idea of a "supreme being in the sky with angels" or a "place of fire and brimstone and demons"...
Was Jesus a real person? Based on my research, yeah - I think Jesus was a real person (or more likely, *persons*). For his time, he had radical ideas, ideas which upset many and made many fearful of him and his followers. I think he taught many good lessons. I am sure he said and did things that have been ommitted/purged in the standard texts - he was only a person, after all. But I am not going to believe he was anything more than this. We should be amazed and happy that such a person(s) existed. We should recognize in a broad manner these same traits when we see them in our own times. But worship them? No - that is a waste of time and effort. We should instead take their words and deeds, and know them in whole, and apply that to our lives. It is entirely possible to be agnostic/atheist/whatever - and be a good and just person.
I have and help set up a group for hacking an old set top box made by Acer. Inside was a nearly bog standard PC motherboard. It had all the regular parts of a motherboard. There was one ISA slot (used for a modem or NIC). There was a header for a COM port (you had to add a particular Maxim SMT part to get it to work - most people used it for a mouse). It came with its own wireless keyboard, and used a AMD 586/133 for the CPU. IIRC, it had 8 meg of RAM. It also had a smart-card reader. All packaged in a slick, small TIVO-like case. It ran QNX originally, but we got it booting DOS, Win9x, and Linux in the end (oh, there was also a header inside for an IDE drive - one could mount either a small laptop drive inside, or a PCMCIA/flash drive). The original purpose of this box was to act like a Web-TV type system, also it could read data in the VBI to give it links/commands to go to a special server that could display web pages based on the show, or semi-transparent overlays, etc. There was also a remote, now that I think about it. Basically, the only thing that survives to this day of it is the software - it is used by many cable companies (I know Cox uses it with their digital settop boxes).
For example, in and around many small towns cops set up these traps as "revenue generators", sometimes on a semi-permanent basis! Basically, you will be on a road that is say marked for 55 MPH, then as you come into town, the road will be marked as 35 MPH. Well, that is all fair and good if there is enough room between the markings (signs) to slow down safely (ie, coast or light braking).
Many times, though, you will see these signs set 50 to 100 feet apart! Nowhere near enough time. The cop or radar camera will be behind a bush (or some other hidden niche) somewhere in the vicinity of the second sign, generally right after it. If you are 5 MPH more or over the 35 MPH limit (many are, especially if you are out of town or driving through) - bam, you are hit with a ticket.
Photo radar galls people more because of the lack of a human element. Many times, you see these things on the side of a freeway. Say you are doing 80 MPH in a 75 MPH zone, in the middle lane - maybe fluctuating between 80 and 81 (or you got new different size tires and didn't have your speedometer adjusted). The freeway is newly paved, you are driving a well-tuned family sedan with good tires and pressure, no one else around you for a couple of miles. Any person with common sense would say you are only being a danger to yourself, if anyone. I would say if you passed a cop, he might pull you over and give you a warning to slow down, or a small ticket at best. The photo radar machine? BUSTED - for whatever the local government can get out of you. Heck, they might even jack it up a bit, because by the time you get the mail, you are already home, they are far away, and you have NO WAY to prove the conditions. At least with a cop, you can talk with him - treat him nice and he will probably let you off with the warning.
This is why people call them traps - because that is what they generally are.
Enter multiple monitors. This is a good solution, but gamers will likely find that the solution may be unwieldy and expensive. Furthermore, it will still lack the depth that they seek to immerse themselves into the game. Lastly, the edges of the monitors will ultimately get in the way, though this is a minor problem compared to the expense and the need for a large desk.
One thing that is rarely discussed or seen is how to get better depth from a single (or multi) monitor setup. The way to do it, which the simulator industry has done for years, is by using a collimated display. These displays work by taking the light output of a monitor, and forcing it to be more parallel, resulting in an increase of depth and immersion. However, these displays are typically expensive, due to the specialized optics (and niche market, of course). How can a home user do this themselves?
Enter the fresnel lens - using such a lens (page magnifier), obtained from just about anywhere (or, alternatively, if you are willing to spend the money, buy a good one from Edmund Scientific Optics). Flashback on the "100 inch" TV projector projects (some would say scams), then flashback further to the AcidWarp projector box from DOS days, and even further back to the large fresnel lens TV magnifiers - you start to get the idea. Then, go to this page, and read it. Get immersed!
Regarding HMDs - for good immersion you will want one with at least 60 degrees horizontal FOV, ideally with a high resolution. Such HMDs exist, but they are expensive, very expensive. Even lower res (ie, 640x480 or 800x600) will set you back some coin, especially if you buy new. If you want to play with HMDs, it is probably best to buy used (every now and then pro-level HMDs appear on Ebay for a fraction of what they cost new - recently, several Virtuality HMDs went up - I have also purchased a CyberEye CE-200M on Ebay before as well, with 3DOF magnetic head tracker, for around $300.00). You can also go the homebrew route - use small TFT LCD TVs mounted to a hardhat headband, with credit-card size fresnel lenses as magnifiers. Likely your first tries will be abject failures, but subsequent modding will yield a reasonable HMD for little monetary outlay (but lots of invested time). Back in the day, PCVR magazine ran lots of articles on this - information on building homebrew HMDs seems to have faded from the collective memory. You won't get the resolution or the FOV of a high-end HMD, but you can easily approach, and in many-ways exceed, that of low to lower-mid level HMDs, if you only try...
Apache Reclamation and Electronics (3rd Ave and Apache) - they carry a bunch of junk, right now they have a lot of microscopes, plus a small amount of glassware (ie, test tubes, beakers, etc - plus glass rod and tubing). They also have lots of other funky stuff which you might find useful, and so far no one has purchased the industrial CO2 laser they have...
The second place is Equipment Exchange at 515 East Grant Street (behind BOB) - you name it, they probably have it or can get it for you. Large stereo microscopes for semiconductor inspection - no problem (one entire room of them!). Need a working electron microscope? No problem. Unimate industrial robot arm (size of a small truck) - not an issue! If it has been used in medical, semiconductor, or other lab use - they carry it, no matter how big or small. It is a great place to browse.
Finally, realize that a lot of lab equipment can be homebrewed from around the house, depending on what you are doing. If you want to try this route, pick up a copy of "Granddad's Wonderful Book of Chemistry" from Atlan Formularies. While not current technology, you could probably do a lot with what it shows, plus get you into the mode of thinking unconventionally about doing things - so you aren't beholden to the "accepted methods", which may actually limit you (ie, learn to think outside the box in *all* endevours).
Furthermore, read a few books on emergence (like Kevin Kelly's "Out of Control"). Might as well also pick up and read Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science"...
I have said it before and I will say it again: Taken together, the knowledge within these three books could very well lead to some amazing breakthroughs in many of the sciences, in particular cognitive sciences and genetics. Even if some of the theories prove to be wrong, I think there is enough there to be a springboard for someone else - please read and decide for yourself!
If you want to go further, read "Linked" by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi - they are similar, and their structure (basically nodes aren't randomly connected, but form "islands" and "supernodes", with weak-links between them. Some are isolated, but many link to each other. Due to isolation, however, it isn't possible to completely map by spidering the tree, regardless of the network. Thus, you end up with stuff like the "Invisible Web" - portions of the internet completely isolated from the main cluster. Social networks follow a similar pattern, and I suspect our brain does as well) leads to their robustness.
The idea of "welding the hood shut" will likely become even more entrenched if we see hybrids and electrics become common. Because of the technology (and maybe this is why on the A2) used in such vehicles, manufacturers would want to do this to protect trade secrets and other knowledge from leaking to competitors (which right now go and buy competeting vehicles and tear them down, etc to learn from them).
Regarding your friend's experience - did something happen to the vehicle to make it drop into "limp home" mode, or was this slo-mo mode something entirely different?