...where you were so tired from staying up so late punching cards, plus after carefully walking them across campus in the snow, and down the stairs - on the last step into the basement you stumble - and your cards go everywhere (at which point you either find a card sorter, or you sort by hand - arghh!!!)...
I have always understood that true oleo was basically the "first" form of margarine - it was a white, salted crisco-like compound, very unlike what we know today as margarine. It supposedly was just this side of pallatable (as compared to real butter, which most people at the time - 1930s-1950s - were used to). I don't know what real percentages were, but my uncle was in the portion of people who hated it, and never would try margarine again until he died (8 years ago). He always insisted on real butter. I tend to think that he tried oleo because he was so interested in science and technology (just like we geeks today try crazy food and such that come out "new"), and was turned off by the whole idea of "fake butter" or "butter replacement" as a result - and from then on, only would eat the real stuff...
Somewhere, I've still got the solar-pumped Stirling engine plans from a '65 issue. Even then, I could tell the difference between engineering and shinola.
I hope you are referencing the "electrofan gizmos" with this line, and not the Stirling engine - solar-powered stirling engines do run, my uncle had one that he had bought through Edmund Scientific, that he ran in his backyard for me once (he was a curious man - loved science and religion - hated margarine, said it tasted like oleo - built his own wind generator and solar water heating system for his house)...
Not sure if it was in PS, but I have in front of me an original Popular Mechanics, dated August of 1964 (for 35 cents). The picture on the front shows the fanciful image of a future craft - with a man inside. Looks like a big mesh disk, supported by ribs radiating outward from the center (think of a flat mesh umbrella, and you have an idea). Underneath that is suspended the cab. Far below is a freeway intersection with cars (traffic report?). The catchline, in red (with arrow, just in case you couldn't figure it out) - is "Major de Seversky's Ion-Propelled Aircraft". On an interesting side note, one of the main headlines (below the title) is "Checker Game of the Century: Man Vs. Computer" (hehe).
Inside, the article is black and white (more or less - some shades of green as well). It was written by a Mr. Hans Fantel. The first line: "It was downright spooky." (I can't make this stuff up).
To be honest, the models shown flying in the article seem much more graceful than the ones I have seen at sites like JLN's - they use some form of charged grid, and they show them flying much higher (whether this is real or a photographic trick is unknown). All of the models (as well as the drawings, including the cover) seem to have strange "arrow" pointing "electrodes" sticking up from the top of the grid (so the "arrows" point upward). A diagram shows a simplified drawing of what is happenning - it reads:
"Ions rushing toward positively sharged grid collide with neutral air molecules and thrust air particles downward, ions stop at grid" and "Neutral air molecules, whacked downward by ions,pass through mesh of ion acceptor grid. Downwash of air keeps ionocraft aloft"
The grid is supposed to be the positive, and the downward pointing leg ends of the arrow are the negative (the legs, I suppose, are insulated parts of the craft structure).
The article says the craft is made of "about $5 worth of balsa and aluminum wire", and measures "only 1296 square inches" in area. The article mentions "ionocraft engineers" - which seems at the time of the writing, that more than one individual was playing with the things. The article further explains that "at present it takes 90 watts (30,000 volts at 3 milliamperes) to fly a two-ounce model. Translated into ordinary power-to-weight ratios, this works out to roughly.96 hp per pound, as compared with a typical.1hp per pound of helicopter or.065 hp for a pound of Piper Cub".
So, yeah - the problem was, and still is - the power supply. I wonder, though, if those numbers could be made better, and if a lightweight 12V lithium-ion was developed - if using an inverter (or something like it) for a CCFT (like the lightweight inverters used in today's laptops for the backlight) could be used as an "onboard" power source? If the numbers could be made better, then I bet it could be done (run-times would suck, but it would be a fun toy). Micro-miniature hobby helicopter building has shown that you can do a lot with very little - so I would think that creating an onboard supply for such a "craft" might be possible today...
Back in my day, we used Connection Machines with 65536 1-bit processors!
Do you (or anyone else here) know how a 1 bit processor works? I have read a bit about the CM, and always come across the "1-bit processor" thing - but never have found enough information on how a 1-bit processor really works?
I have a feeling it is something like a single-instruction cpu (subtract then branch or something like that), but even more esoteric in practice. Furthermore, I tend to wonder how you write programs for such a machine (nevermind reducing a problem, if possible, to a parallel processing structure) - I mean, how would the real (assembler, or if need be, machine) code look like coming out of the compiler.
Does anyone know of a site detailing this kind of information? Kinda like "parallel processing for dummies" or something (I understand the high-level concepts of PP - I just don't understand all the background)?
I didn't mean to sound defensive at you - I just get a bit agitated when I see what amounts to "BASIC sucks!" - when most people haven't a clue about what constitutes a current BASIC application. True, most BASIC applications only exist as VB apps - which does suck. Microsoft has essentially stolen BASIC from the world, and that is a *bad* thing. But BASIC is just a language syntax. In theory, it is possible to model/convert BASIC over to simplistic C code. With a few extra commands, you could probably do the same to convert it to C++. Like I said, it is just a syntax. I think it has gotten a bum rap from its early past (people get real hung up on the whole GOTO thing, but BASIC hasn't needed GOTO in over a decade).
I do agree he should have mentioned what he would use on the project now - to find out what his preference was (hey, maybe instead of VB it was Delphi/Kylix?).
I also think it is funny the bickering on/. over C++ - I don't think it is the tool for every job. It has its place, but large scale apps can take a long time to create and debug in C++, and he has a point on the compilation cycle (which is another thing I like about VB - the ability to just make a change and run the thing. Then, when you are ready, commit to the full compile). Sometimes, the best thing to do is leverage the strengths of each language (as another poster mentioned, a combo like Python and C/C++ for the intense parts)...
By "functional" I meant more along the lines of "what came before OOP" - that is, you have essentially a "main()", then functions() called from the main() (whether they reside in the same source file or are included) - maybe this is a "procedural" language? I don't know for sure.
Essentially, we had languages that were top-down (ie, no way to call a function and return - the closest old BASICs on micros got was GOSUB), then with functions (ie, var = func(), plus call sub() ), now OOP (though VB's OOP is horribly broken).
Finally, in response to "try writing some large programs in it" - I have. Currently, I maintain a 10,000+ line Visual Basic CRM app for the employer I work at. It isn't the greatest thing, but it helps run the company (my plans are to rewrite it in PHP and Smarty, running on Apache). I have also worked on (with different employers) both a very large insurance claims management software and a warehouse inventory and sales tracking software - each had over 100,000+ lines of code (probably a lot more - never took a true count on either code base), written in PICK BASIC (actually, VMark Software's UniVerse PICK). I know of many other large legacy style PICK BASIC applications as well in a wide range of industries. Chances are, if you see a "green-screen" VT-100 terminal style application, it is either going to be PICK or COBOL (most likely the latter, but the former also holds it share).
There isn't anything wrong with BASIC as a syntax - easy to read, easy to learn. Keep the basics (no pun intended), add some simple OOP statements - you would probably have a winning language. In general, BASIC's biggest problem (and it affects other languages as well, like C) is the ability to write massive, hard to debug and maintain codebases - throw in bad practices like adding GOTOs liberally (and there is *no reason* to do this anymore in BASIC), and you get a nightmare. Proper defining and use of called functions, along with included code segment files to break the code up helps - but not as much as an object oriented system would...
Yeah - I was thinking of that too - most of the time it is black text on a colored grid on a white background. So, you would remove the colored grid, leaving the text behind. If the grid is place over the text, remove the grid, then go back over the pixels and "smudge" them up/down to fill in the gaps, using the same color pixels as the text (like I said, usually black). The tricky part is then recognizing the numbers/letters. I think I would first try simple OCR software - but if that didn't work, I would take the bitmap, and deconvolve (that isn't the word, but basically I would downsample the image a lot to increase the letter pixel size) it. Then, parse the letters out by spacing (there will be a certain amount of white pixels between each letter, between the rightmost pixel of one letter and the leftmost pixel of the next), so I would only have to deal with one letter at a time. Then, use some kind of statistical analysis plus pattern matching algorithms (match against templates, if a certain percentage of pixels fall in the right place is it this letter - also allow for tweaking of the weights) to determine the letter.
Yeah, I think that would work for at least 90% of the anti-spam bitmap entry systems...
Think about it - an open-source project of any large size requires more than a handful of developers. There are only a finite number of developers on the planet, and only a subset of those are willing to work on open-source projects. Now, of those, how many do you think have a) free time to devote to an open source project (which also may mean that they aren't contributing to other projects), and b) can work in the language being used, or pick it up quickly?
I can guarantee you that subset is rather small, perhaps in some cases non-existant, because many programmers with a good skillset like that (that is, they are C++ programmers for a long while and know their shit, or can pick up C++ rapidly) want to be *paid* for their work - thus those who just want to help out are few and far between.
Now, what if the project was developed in something much easier to pick up - or was more widely known? You would instantly have more developers willing to help out, simply because of the numbers knowing the language. Plus, ordinary users could easily pick up the language and help out, possibly fixing the bugs that bother them (and bugs which bother one user may not bother developers, but they probably bother a ton of other users).
Unfortunately, C++ is not the language that most people know. Java comes close, but it still is difficult for a lot of people to grasp. What most people *can* grasp (though it may not be best for application development, however, in most projects it won't matter if done right) is a language which has a much more "english-like" syntax, and can be programmed as a "functional language" (as opposed to requiring OOP, like Java). What does that leave most users with? That's right - VB. Is it any wonder that many (understatement - an absolute TON would be better) internal (and more than a few external) applications for businesses (that is, applications developed by businesses for business - whether it is for internal use or external sale) have been written in VB? Is it any wonder that Windows holds the desktop in businesses - wonder why? VB. Whether it is a real VB solution (ie, VB executable, etc) or an "Office" integrated solution (VB for Applications) - in the end, it comes down to VB, and users being able to quickly come up to speed on it.
Personally, I think this is one of the things holding back development by businesses on Linux (esp on the desktop) - the lack of such a tool. The closest I have seen has been Python with some windowing toolkit (to interface with X) tacked on, plus a gui designer to create the fancy forms - but none of this is as integrated as VB's IDE is, and while Python is a nice looking language (I can't really tell how good it is at things - I have never used it - currently playing and learning about Perl and PHP), it isn't BASIC.
I have never understood why there is such derision regarding BASIC - because that is the problem, it seems. At one time, BASIC was looked upon as a satisfactory language for a lot of projects - whether hobbiest or business. Even today, in business, you still have people creating large business application (think vertical markets) in what amounts to BASIC. Why is it that Parallax's microcontrollers became so popular so quickly? BASIC!
I think if inroads are to be made in the business realm on the desktop by Linux (and maybe even *nix distros in general), there needs to be a form of BASIC for users to create custom applications with. I am not saying that we should have it like Microsoft's vision (what with Outlook being able to willy-nilly run VBA scripts and such) - but a BASIC with perhaps sandbox capabilities for security, plus the ability be plugged into a variety of office applications, and a tight, clean IDE/debugger - that would help propel Linux onto the desktop in business.
Finally, let me say this - I am not saying BASIC (or VB) is the tool for every job - it isn't. But it is a nice general purpose tool which can help solve many problems in business, and it provides rapid turnaround for projects. If such a language or development environment were created for Linux, it would be a boon for both businesses and open source projects/developers.
Yeah? I have two first edition copies - why two? Because one is majorly fucked up: about halfway through the book, it "repeats" itself - and not from the beginning, but from somewhere in the middle from the first half - when I was first reading it, I thought I was losing my mind when I got to that point, then when I realized the mistake, I was doubly pissed because I then had to wait for a replacement from Amazon (who replaced the book for free, but never asked for the old one back - thus I kept them both, the bad one for curiosity sake, and the good one which I completed reading)...
Take a look at letters and such written by 8-11 year olds back in the 1800's, esp. the latter part. You will find that in many cases, those children of yesteryear were able to write and compose stories better than many contemporary adults, let alone children. I tend to wonder what this shift in ability says about where today's society is, and where it is heading...?
Hello - see this thread here for the places I was talking about. Another place - online only and catalog, I think - that I know of called Electronics Goldmine (located in Scottsdale) - do a google on it to find it. Another place I like is called All Electronics Surplus (I think it is located in the LA area) - they are great to order online and through the catalog. They tend to have interesting parts and such.
Hey there - long time, no talk! Personally, I don't think Apache Reclamation sucks. If you are looking for computers and related, sure - they suck. But if you need some hydraulics, pneumatics, motors, gears, wire, etc - in other words, hardware parts - I think they are a great source.
You mention one of the others I was thinking of (though I know it as "Equipment Exchange" - not ESE - got an interesting large LED "bargraph" device from them recently. I think the address is 7th Ave and Grant - but I may be wrong, too).
Last place I was thinking of was EMC - Elitech - on Indian School and *grumble* (ok, I think it is something like 28th Drive or 31st Drive or something - it is actually on a weird street behind the Levitz warehouse that has two names mashed together). They sometimes rip you on price, but that is where I got my LCDs at. I also have had good luck with other computer stuff there - but they do have "rip off" deals it seems (ie, stuff priced way higher than what it is worth)...
Ask yourself why you want a computer in the kitchen, before just putting one in "for the hell of it". Do you want it for recipies? Food inventory management? Something else? The answer to this question should determine what kind of computer you will be putting in, and whether you spend money on a new or a used LCD display.
If you are planning on using it for recipies and similar "text only" needs, find an old 486 laptop, extend the LCD cable, and mount the LCD underneath the countertop. Cut a hole out for the LCD in the counter, and mount the LCD. Use a router to make a countersink edge for a piece of glass or lexan, set flush with the countertop, and sealed in place with clear aquarium silicone sealant (to keep liquids out). Extend the keyboard to a pullout location (a custom "cutting board" style "drawer" would be perfect). On the laptop, run some simple serial terminal software or lynx, and serve up text only via serial comms or a network card (if you have a pc card/pcmcia slot on the old laptop).
If you are looking for old LCDs, try to find the closest used computer recycling shop around your area. Look in the largest city near you. You want a place that is typically located in the "dregs" of the city - the industrial quarters, crack alley - if the city is a coastal city, like LA or San Diego, look into the dock/shipyard areas, too. There are plenty of places like this, many of them selling equipment and junk for fractions of a penny on the dollar. Some of them want to get rid of stuff so bad they will GIVE it to you! I know of three really great places like this here in the Phoenix, AZ area. Larger cities will probably have more to choose from.
These places will generally be scummy - you will get dirty standing still and touching nothing. But this is a *good* thing, because it means you have found a gold mine. Now, you just need to sort through the junk (it is rarely organized well, and even if it is organized, it still needs to be sifted through). Sometimes, you will find a rare gem.
Pertinant to your question, at one of the places I know of, they had got in a huge cache of SONY LCD monitors. The only problem was that most of them had the logic boards removed. However, I managed to find two that should mate together, once I get around to messing with them. Might be a total bust, though. Anyhow, for $25.00 I got two monitors, one with a busted screen, but the full logic intact, the other with a non-cracked screen, but no logic - mix and match until it works.
The other thing to consider is dumpster diving - you would be surprised at the amount of shit companies throw away. My job not too long ago threw out a Compaq P150 laptop with CD-ROM and sound. Took it home, powered it up, no screen. Turned out it was a busted backlight - one trip to Fry's Electronics and some soldering got the beast working perfectly. Picked up a cheap SODIMM to get the RAM up to max, dropped in a cheap Ebay laptop drive to bust that up - everything else is a-ok. Currently in the process of setting up Debian on it.
From trash to treasure - if my company did it, ALL COMPANIES DO IT. You just have to find where and when they do it, and be willing to ask them about their castoffs and junk, or dive in the dumpster. You may or may not find a usable LCD display this way, but I guarantee you will find usable "junk"...
As already mentioned, some of the keys to financial stability are:
1. Learn to balance your checkbook correctly
2. Spend less than you take in, and
3. Get a savings account.
I cannot stress that last one *enough*. While the first two are very important as well (and believe me, if you aren't balancing your checkbook, and you don't *know* where money is going - once you learn how or figure it out it will be an eye opener - you will also find out how many places *give* you stuff, and never take the money out of your account), that last one is a biggie - and is one I *wish* I had been told about when I was much younger and stupid.
Now that the time for getting tax returns back is here, if you are getting a refund, don't spend it - save it! If you can, live on ramen and macaroni for a while, and save as much money as you can (turn up the AC to higher levels this summer to save a ton - also, if you have a hot water heater, turn it down below 120 degrees). Don't buy frivolous things, learn to scrounge the trash. Stay home, and deal with what you already have, instead of buying more. All that extra money at the end of the month (after you have balanced your checkbook), transfer to the savings account. Build it up quick, and keep it for "just-in-case", or...
Buy a house! Ok, get a loan, and start paying it off - double up on payments, or pay the same amount twice a month (basically, you pay the same monthly amount, but pay half of it every two weeks, to cut down the owed interest) - build that equity, but plan to stay there for at least 10-15 years (otherwise, it isn't worth it), then if you want, use that equity to "move up" (either apply it to start a business, which is risky, but doable - or buy a "better" house - consider the first house a "starter"). Instead of flushing money into a rent hole, that money *stays yours* by applying it to property you gradually become the owner of (actually, you are always the owner, you just have a lien against the property by the bank that you pay off - the bank doesn't own the property, but if you break the loan contract, they can take it).
I wish I had known this a long time ago - I would probably be better off now. As it is, I have managed to get a house (in a month I will have been in it for a year now), have a savings account with a good sum of money in it (my wife and I saved for the down payment on the house, we paid that - and a year later have as much as we did last year in the account - we mainly use the money for home improvements and such). It has gotten to the point where any extra money (whether it is a bonus, extra leftover money, whatever), just gets stuck into the savings account. I have found that I have most of everything I want or need - I just don't have the urge to spend money left and right like I used to. That isn't to say I don't buy things I want to - that is the thing: when I need to or want to, I can - but I first think about the purchase, and decide whether I really need/want it, and if I do, then I get it - but I always try to spend as little for whatever it is as I can (but never sacrifice quality, better to spend more for better quality than to buy something that will break quickly)...
First off - go see your doctor before going on any radical weight loss plan. Second, go see your doctor, and have a full physical and blood work done, especially if you are approaching or over 30 years old.
My birthday is coming up (the "big" 3-0, of course) - so I thought it would be in my best interest to have a full physical done. I had an idea that when the blood work came back, there would be hell to pay. I am your typical geek - little in the way of exercise, high fat/high carb food consumption (ie, Jack in the Box and KFC on a weekly basis, lots of home cooked meals like polish sausage and fried potatoes, grilled rib-eye steak, homemade fried pork chops), and worst of all, funky eating habits (no breakfast, no lunch, three helpings at dinner).
That all changed when I got my blood work back the next week, and was prescribed Lipitor for high cholesterol.
Attention all geeks - I cannot stress this enough - if you are overweight and eat like I eat, get your blood work done, and change your habits - before they get to a point where they kill you. It isn't hard to do, and can be a little fun (ok, not much - but it is interesting, to say the least).
Ok, so now I am on Lipitor for the immediate future. As soon as I got my bloodwork back, I was what could be called something like "low-high" range - in that I had more than reccommended total cholesterol (a bit over 200), a lot more of the bad cholesterol, and less than needed (a lot less) of the good cholesterol. I immediately (the night I picked up my prescription) changed my diet and my habits.
1. No more fast food, unless it is a healthy alternative like Subway (no mayo, etc), or some kind of chinese food (chicken and white rice, but the chicken can't be fried).
2. No more fried foods.
3. Eat on a regular basis - I now eat a breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner, all normal size portions - no more triple-helpings at "dinner".
4. Eat more grilled foods - chicken and seafood mainly, every now and then, pork (lean chops). The upside is that I love chicken - I just can't have it fried.
5. Eat more baked foods - lemon-pepper baked salmon and rice - yum!
6. Take a walk on regular basis - I now walk about 1-2 miles every evening after I eat.
7. Park further away from places - this isn't something I always do, but I do more often now - not only do you get a parking space all the time, but you get a bit of exercise as well.
8. No more "sweets" - ie, processed snack cakes, candy bars, etc.
9. Drink less soda - no more 44 oz drinks from Circle K - I drink a lot more water now, I also buy flavored/carbonated water. I also drink a fair amount of soy milk (Silk brand is the best I have found, so far).
10. If you drink milk, go with 1-2%, and where you can stand it, drink soy milk as I noted above - I tend to buy vanilla flavored, and have it with cherrios for my breakfast.
11. Eat more fruit and vegetables - steam your vegatables when/where you can - or roast them, or bake them, or have them raw.
12. When you are full, stop eating - this isn't as hard if you are eating regularly. When I switched to a breakfast/lunch/dinner schedule of eating, I found out I was eating a lot less food, and I filled up quickly.
When you buy food, look for the lowest of everything on the back - however, most of the time you will have to compromise. Typically, if it is low fat, it is high carb - or it will be vice-versa. Rarely will you find foods (especially processed foods) that are "perfect" in all categories. Many foods are actually completely "empty" - they have calories, and that's it - Redi-Whip is like this. What is nice about these is that if you keep your daily calorie count low enough, you can use redi-whip, chocolate syrup, and low-fat vanilla ice cream and have a nice "sweet" that isn't too bad for you.
Eat more fish and seafood - salmon, catfish and others are pretty good eats, prepared right. Just don't dip in batter and fry - bake or grill instead. Grilled pork chops with barbeque sauce are fi
The company I currently work for has an in-house CRM system, the backend is currently an Access 97 DB, and the frontend is a custom written VB6 application. We have probably around 25-35 users on it at any one time.
For a long time, we were having corruption issues, and didn't know what the reason was - it got so bad, that I ended up writing a patch to custom sync records on tables with a backup - that is, if a user changed a record, it would be saved prior to the change, then saved after - if any corruption happened, the system would sense this, flag the record, and pull the old record from the backup table. This worked fairly good (it was randomized and distributed across the running instances of the app, so it would only "bog down" one person at a time), but it was far from ideal - and when the backup table became corrupted...
Eventually, our sysadmin of the NT server we were hosting the Access DB file on figured out the problem - it turned out that there is a file locking flag setting (I cannot tell you the exact name of the switch - I appologize), that when it was off (or on?) would cause these corruption issues. When we flipped it, the problem went away completely.
Of course, this doesn't answer your question - but it does answer the question of whether corruption is truely an issue with a multi-user Access DB. For your question, I think I would handle it in the following manner:
First off, you would want to consolidate the tables of the DB's involved. 50 separate DB's seem like way too many - I can understand if some are set up for one department, and others for another - if that is the case, group the tables together in that manner, and get the DBs organized. Next, you will want to set up indexed primary key fields on those tables that have similar keys (or same keys) - for selection performance and SQL JOIN reasons. You will then want to make some kind of front-end (or modify the one you already have - which it doesn't sound like you have one, or if you do - it is an Access front -end).
The thing you have to realize about Access (speaking of 97 here - not sure about recent versions) - is that it expects to be "local" to the client - that is, it is opened like a file, and not in a "client-server" true-ODBC fashion. From what I understand, what the JET engine does when you access it via ODBC is the same as if you were accessing it as a file under DAO - just one small level of redirection - it isn't possible to use ODBC on the database otherwise. If you want real ODBC functionality, then I suggest you convert your database(s) over to PostgreSQL or something, then set up a client based DSN-less connection using a VB or Java front-end (or, if you don't want the pain of maintaining multiple client installs, set up Perl, PHP, or Java servlet system to query and display results from the DB - look into LAMP systems as well, if you want to really do some fun stuff).
In theory, you could code a service type application in VB that could talk via TCP/IP to clients, passing SQL queries, and it would use that against the Access DB, then return back a recordset (maybe with requests and responses in XML format) - you would have to do some kind of session management, so you know who requested what, and when - managing queues of requests and responses. Not sure how well it would work, though...
Ideally, your best bet is to get away from Access, and on to something better - then build front-ends to the data that limit what the users can do to the data (also, build in an audit table with functions to update it - pass the function say a key value, a type, a new value, and an old value - the audit table would store this information, along with a timestamp and user name - so you know who changed what when, and they can't lie about it if they bork the database). Finally, set up a system to back up those DBs if you don't already do it (I would hope you do).
I have studied off and on for the past five years or so the idea of emergent behavior and how it works. I don't think of such large origanized social groups of people as anthropomorphized beings, but rather as an entity in which the the "parts" (in this case, the humans) each work according to various goals, perhaps personal, perhaps not - but that the sum of those parts form an entity which may actually be sentient (or at least in some manner greater than the sum of those parts) in some manner, but we have no concept what this entity is thinking, planning, or whether it is sentient at all.
I always describe this as being like a neuron in the brain, or an ant in an anthill. Neither is aware of the larger picture, but enough brought together create fantastic structures, and in one, a thinking, sentient organism. The bad part (which is what I am risking here, if any of this is true) comes when one thinks about "what if one of your neurons (or other cells) became 'aware' in some manner that it was part of a larger whole, and how to manipulate or subvert that larger whole?" - this would be a great danger to that larger entity. If such a thing happenned to a human, then that individual would probably do everything possible to rid itself of the rogue cell, up to and including suicide, if that is what it took. So, would an "artificial" socially "constructed" emergent entity do the same? Perhaps - if it recognized that the "parts" were wandering, so to speak.
Emergent behavior depends on a few basic things, mainly communications between the "nodes" (the unit parts) that make up the group, as well as feedback loops to these units. These two things exist in most emergent systems. I think there is another, though, that must exist for an emergent entity to be sentient (and what sentience means to an emergent entity is unknown to us humans - such a large emergent intelligence would most likely be nearly incomprehensible to us at our level - we don't currently know what to look for, or how to "psychoanalyze" an emergent entity to determine mental state or acuteness) - and that is size.
I think for an emergent system to become intelligent and sentient, the size must be somewhere over 1000 units, perhaps more. Such sizes would include governments, corporatations, and cities. Whether or not any of these groups are emergent beings is up for debate, but I think in some way they are. We, as humans would not anthropomorphize them if they didn't seem to exhibit traits we find in ourselves (because we are emergent entities as well). We describe governments and corporations in many human terms - however, the most disturbing is that in many cases we describe these groups in terms, that if applied to a human, would seem to indicate the onset or an full-blown case of mental degradation or disease (most likely MPD or schitzophrenia at best - psychotic as well, sociopathic behavior, too). However, we don't seem to question this when it comes to large groups of people.
...but in the process of looking, I never found one that I felt met my needs. I needed something that didn't seem to be offered, or if it was, it cost money, or wasn't private, or both. There were a few good ones on freshmeat, and I reccommend you really look there first - there might be something that meets your needs (heck, there might be something there now that meets my needs - but my project began as a way to really learn Perl, so I am sticking with it).
My needs are varied. I am (because I am not quite done with my manager yet) forced to save my Mozilla bookmarks I keep at work, zip them up, email them home, then update my Mozilla at home. I have written some scripts on both ends to help automate this to some extent, but it is still a pain, and it doesn't address a few areas that currently exist in most bookmark lists: duplicates, categories, dead links, and accessibility.
Honestly, the first two can be thought of as almost the same problem. I keep my links very organized, in a hierarchical tree of folders and such in the Mozilla bookmark list. But sometimes (actually, a lot of times), you want to have a bookmark be in two (or more) locations at once, so when you are thinking of something, you can just browse there, get the link, and it is there. A case would be a site on converting or building a hydrogen powered vehicle - do you put it in the automotive site category, the alternate energy site category, or the diy site category - or all three? Preferably, the latter should be the option, but now you have increased your storage requirements by n-times (where n is the number of possible categories the link could fall into). You could drop all links into one folder, and put in the comments area key words to search on - but you would have to come up with a standard set of keywords. This isn't very workable. You also wouldn't know if a link has been duplicated, because the list won't tell you that. When you have hundreds of links, duplication can easily occur. There is also no way to track down and eliminate dead links (except by visiting and updating the tree manually). Finally, there is no way to access your link tree from a computer on the other side of the world, unless you stick a copy somewhere on a server every now and then.
I got sick of all this, and started to write a web-based Perl CGI system for tracking bookmarks. When I am done, it will have:
A category system, so that only one link needs to be stored, with multiple categories. Searches will be with a logic (AND, OR, NOT) system allowing you to search for multiple categories (which *are* the keywords) selected from dropdown lists (these categories are also user updatable, so categories can be added, updated, and deleted). The categories are defined with keys, which allow a category to be modified independent of its key, so that the name and description can be updated and it affects all uses (the key *cannot* be updated - a category can only be deleted if all links using it are deleted or the category dropped first). There will be a special "favorites" or "quicklink" category to show those links on the front page that are the most accessed - like Google, Slashdot, and others.
There is a user "login" database, with autorization levels, so that bookmarks and categories can be put "off-limits" to the various categories. This login system is set up such that when a user logs in, a "session key" is generated and stored (using a unique hash code made from the login and date/time stamp), which is then put into every generated link so that each area know who is accessing it, and matches the sid to what is on the login table. This allows me to eliminate the use of cookies. It isn't a perfectly secure way of doing things, but this app isn't meant to be Fort Knox, either.
There is also a ratings system (1-5 stars), which I hope to allow all users to access, so users can "rate" a site for other users.
In the future I also hope to have a system to allow users to set up "private" bookmark lists, and via the auth system allow them
Once you start to work with metal - you begin to wonder why you stuck so long with wood. Metal isn't that hard to work with - it just requires different tools, and a slightly different set of skills. The biggest of these skills is planning, but if you already work with wood (measure twice, cut once), you already have them.
Your greatest expense with metal working will be in the tools, not the metal itself (ok, metal is more expensive than wood - and don't get me started on retail pricing of thick plate steel - but that is why you get your metal scrap, surplus, or wholesale). If you have tools for woodworking, you probably have the bare minimum of what you need (electric drill and jigsaw). You will need different bits and blades for those (mark the blades with an indelible ink so you know which is which, unless the blade is an "all purpose" - this goes doubly so if you use a fine blade for plastics). You will probably also want to get a drill press, if you don't already have one. Those are the basic tools.
With those tools, you can build quite a lot - if you don't mind bolting/screwing things together. You can also get very creative with JB Weld (that stuff is *very* strong if used properly), if you want. If the metal is very lightweight stuff, soldering with a torch is possible, too (use acid core solder here). Also, look into brazing and alluminum rod soldering (it is like a form of brazing, but it used special rod for alluminum and a stainless steel brush) - both tried and true techniques for quick, easy, and strong metal joining (most bicycles are held together via brazed joints, not welded joints).
After that, you get into "heavier duty" metal work - which also translates into more expense (most generally for the tools). Believe me, when you cut your first piece of plate steel using an oxy-acet torch (look at the running molten slag, feel the heat, smell the burning steel - don't let it hit your feet!) - you won't want to do it any other way. Alright, you don't *need* such a torch, but it is a handy (though expensive) tool. Really, for entry level work here, you need a low-power arc welder, and some kind of cutoff tool.
When you first start looking, you will find there are many types of arc welders, and most of them are pretty expensive. If you have the money, get a 220V AC/DC welder with a nice range setting, and have an electrician wire up an outlet for you with a dedicated breaker. Sometimes, you can make a conversion cord for the AC outlet an electric dryer or water heater is connected to (generally 220V appliances) - you need such a cord or box because the plug on "consumer" 220VAC and "industrial" 220VAC machinery are different. However, you won't be able to run both at the same time.
These welders tend to be expensive (and hiring an electrician to run a line increases this expense) - so if you have to get one, get a good one. I would personally reccommend a Lincoln 225 (the AC/DC type - not AC only - they make both) - it will do everything you are likely to throw at it. It is a rod arc welder (there are wire feed welders, both gas and gasless - but they can be more expensive still - get used to rod, then move to wire later). You will need to get a helmet, chipping hammer, gloves, steel brushes, and a place to work (typically, your driveway or back porch - you may want to invest in some 1/4-1/2 inch piece of plate steel as a surface protector - a 3x3 foot piece should suffice for many things). You will run into a lot of difficulties welding - the biggest one is the rod sticking (this is where DC comes in - DC sticks less). If the rod sticks, wiggle it to break the rod away, or release the "stinger" from the rod to break the circuit. There are a number of other issues (blowing holes, starting the arc, keeping the arc going, running the bead, etc) - so many numerous things I can't describe them all here (maybe I should make a FAQ?). It can be frustrating, but also fun. Never look at the arc directly. Always wear a dark t-shirt when welding (the flash can get under the helmet, and while y
Actually, PVC pipe is pretty strong. Given enough wheel contact areas, the weight should be distributed enough so as not to put any undue stress on any one point of the pipe wall.
The pipe is lightweight, strong, and easy to bend (with a heat gun - here in Phoenix, AZ you could just let it sit in the sun in July). I think the guys track design needs to be different, though.
I would go with using 4x4 posts in concrete footers sunk at least 3 feet into the ground. For tall supports, I would "stack" the 4x4s end to end, and use 2x4s to "surround" and join the posts together, using long lag bolts or something (so the final post would be 8x8 in thickness, approximately). I would brace the bottom of the post with a "teepee" style angle bracing.
To attach the PVC pipe rails to the posts, I would build spanners (or whatever they are called in roller coaster parlance) from plywood (probably 3/4 inch exterior grade), and the track would have "joins" at these points (where the rail is split) - at these joins I would cut the pipe in such a manner as to build some form of inner joiner connector that could be bolted to the spanner, but leave the rest of the pipe intact on the top side so there was little to no gap. The pipe would be loosely connected to the joiners (which would extend at least 8 inches or more into the pipe), so that thermal expansion would not hinder the setup.
More "floating" spanners would be constructed (probably from 3/8 inch plywood) to keep the track separated properly in between the support poles. I would also have a third support pipe running along the bottom (just like you see in most steal coasters today - it forms a very strong triangular cross-section).
Done right, with good PVC pipe, and painted, it would be a hell of a coaster. It would be pretty cheap to build - most of the cost would be in the wood, not the pipe. If you used ABS pipe (which you can sometimes get with thicker walls, so it is stronger for "rail use"), it would be slightly more costly, but not really much - and you would get to have black track to boot!
Looking at these coasters makes me wish I had the money to buy a 40-acre plot in the desert to set a home on and build one - someday, perhaps...
Several years ago, we rented and moved into house owned by the parents of my brother-in-law. This house was a hand built extraveganza of parts, sitting on several acres of land out in the (then - it was built in the early 1970's) desert of north Phoenix, Arizona (today, a lot of other stuff has grown up around it - but the land is worth a lot, due to a new freeway having been built to the immediate south of it - but I digress).
My brother-in-law's father, at the time, was in the building demolition business, so a lot of what went into that house came from other buildings (the roof trusses and steel I-beams, mainly) - but I wouldn't doubt if the wiring and other things did also. The house was *huge* - we only lived in half of it, because the other half was for storage - as it was, our half was around 2500 to 3000 square feet.
The interior of the house, when we moved in, was - well - interesting, to say the least. When we moved in, we had to do a lot of cleaning and painting, because the prior renters were slobs and nearly destroyed what was left. We nicknamed the place "The 70's Mystery Mansion" - once you saw it, you would know why - but I will attempt to describe it:
Imagine a house with roof trusses so big and strong that there are no intervening support walls - that is, all the interior wall could "go away", yet the roof would still be strong - about 100 feet long, and 75 feet wide. Make the exterior walls grey concrete block, with a dark grey (almost black) mortar. On the interior, these exterior walls are not painted or covered, except in the bedrooms and bathrooms. Imagine the entire exterior surrounded by a brick "facade", made of of columns and arches, completely surrounding the house, and the roof supported by it and the house exterior walls, so that there is a constant shade "patio" surrounding the entire house. Out front, dirt, crushed granite, a few boulders, and some sagaguro (sp?) cacti towering high. The front of the house has a ton of windows, nearly floor to ceiling in size (8 foot ceilings), and a window in each bedroom. All of the windows are covered with steel bars anchored to the block. The front doors are two steel screen french-style doors, and inside of them are two solid wood "french" doors, black in color, with golden bubbled-glass inserts (transparent, but not clear).
Inside, the carpet is avocado green, except for the bedrooms, where two are rust colored, one is purple, and the bathroom is royal blue. Imagine a tub so big in this bathroom that a 40 gallon water tank only fills it to about 3 inches of water. Imagine dark wood paneling in these bedrooms. Imagine multi-colored sparkle cottage cheese ceilings. Imagine wanting to claw your eyes out...
But it was the kitchen where the strange shit happened - the kitchen, of all places...
The kitchen was just as funky as the rest of the house - the countertop was acrylic resin, into which was embedded various sea-shells and rocks, and coral. The floor was industrial tile, the cabinets were more darkness (but woohoo! - they had reversible cabinet fronts - except the reverse was some kind of odd black lined grid with various orange and brown geometric shapes on a white background - blech!) - and the stove, well...
The stove was in a class by itself - white (IIRC), but it worked OK. The dishwasher (before it finally died) was harvest gold. The range hood (which is where the freakiness was), was a black sloping medieval (or moorish) style construct (if you have ever seen the "Galloping Gormet" on FoodTV, the same style stuff was in his set kitchen). It was dirty when we moved in - super dirty (we are talking like major grease buildup here). We tried to clean it, but didn't get much off - it either needed a major steam cleaning, or simply replaced - in a word, it was NASTY.
At the time we were cleaning it, we tried to turn on the fan and the light, to see if they worked at all - they did. The light came on OK, the fan turned quickly and with a lot of power.
Recently I was replacing the backlight in a laptop's LCD screen. I bought the backlight (which is a thin, cold-cathode flourescent tube - about 3mm in diameter and 200mm or so long) from Fry's Electronics, and brought it home in the plastic bag. I took it out of the bag (but still in its package) and walked across the room - and it flashed briefly, but brightly. At first it startled me, then I realized that the static electricity buildup was discharging in the tube. I found that you could crumple up the plastic bag in a ball, and run it on the backside cardboard of the package, and the resulting dumb of static electricity in the tube would light it up at the point where the bag was on the length of the tube (the whole tube didn't light up, just a section). It wasn't as bright, but could clearly be seen, especially when the lights were turned off. I then quit messing with it and repaired the laptop...
I can possibly answer one of the questions - but I probably won't be believed because I don't have much to back it up:
The question is regarding the portable instrument used to make cauterized cuts. I remember back in the early 90's seeing in a Popular Science or Popular Mechanics magazine a blurb in the "new technology" section about a handheld laser device, about the size of a flashlight, being developed by DARPA for in-field surgery needs in time of war. It seems like a possible thing to build, though I would think the power supply would be much larger (at least backpack size), and that a cable would connect the laser end to the power supply, or the backpack would contain the laser system, and the "cable" would be a fiber-optic conduit (though how they would cool it would be another matter - yes, fiber can get warm).
Now, whether this was just a "blue-sky" device or something, I don't know - the interesting thing is that cattle mutilations have been reported for a long time, long before the early 1990s (and interestingly, I think even before the "UFO Wave" of the 1940's - though that is when it picked up steam, so to speak).
One point not made in the post of the question (though I am sure it can be found with good searching of google), is that some of the cows (and other animals) have been found in muddy areas - with no tracks around or leading to/away from the bodies.
I don't know if it is UFOs, or whether it is crazy DARPA engineers flying around in black helicopters, or something else entirely. Considering that it has happened in many countries, in many locations in the countries, I tend to doubt it is just one group, nor do I think it is the farmers hoaxing people (the animals are expensive - you don't kill your source of revenue unless you are truely nutso - the probability that all the farmers and keepers of the animals being insane mutilators just isn't feasible). The scary thing is that it is happenning, and nobody seems to really give a damn.
Perhaps when numerous people start turning up this way, there will be some notice...
Slashdot Mirror
...where you were so tired from staying up so late punching cards, plus after carefully walking them across campus in the snow, and down the stairs - on the last step into the basement you stumble - and your cards go everywhere (at which point you either find a card sorter, or you sort by hand - arghh!!!)...
I have always understood that true oleo was basically the "first" form of margarine - it was a white, salted crisco-like compound, very unlike what we know today as margarine. It supposedly was just this side of pallatable (as compared to real butter, which most people at the time - 1930s-1950s - were used to). I don't know what real percentages were, but my uncle was in the portion of people who hated it, and never would try margarine again until he died (8 years ago). He always insisted on real butter. I tend to think that he tried oleo because he was so interested in science and technology (just like we geeks today try crazy food and such that come out "new"), and was turned off by the whole idea of "fake butter" or "butter replacement" as a result - and from then on, only would eat the real stuff...
I hope you are referencing the "electrofan gizmos" with this line, and not the Stirling engine - solar-powered stirling engines do run, my uncle had one that he had bought through Edmund Scientific, that he ran in his backyard for me once (he was a curious man - loved science and religion - hated margarine, said it tasted like oleo - built his own wind generator and solar water heating system for his house)...
Inside, the article is black and white (more or less - some shades of green as well). It was written by a Mr. Hans Fantel. The first line: "It was downright spooky." (I can't make this stuff up).
To be honest, the models shown flying in the article seem much more graceful than the ones I have seen at sites like JLN's - they use some form of charged grid, and they show them flying much higher (whether this is real or a photographic trick is unknown). All of the models (as well as the drawings, including the cover) seem to have strange "arrow" pointing "electrodes" sticking up from the top of the grid (so the "arrows" point upward). A diagram shows a simplified drawing of what is happenning - it reads:
"Ions rushing toward positively sharged grid collide with neutral air molecules and thrust air particles downward, ions stop at grid" and "Neutral air molecules, whacked downward by ions,pass through mesh of ion acceptor grid. Downwash of air keeps ionocraft aloft"
The grid is supposed to be the positive, and the downward pointing leg ends of the arrow are the negative (the legs, I suppose, are insulated parts of the craft structure).
The article says the craft is made of "about $5 worth of balsa and aluminum wire", and measures "only 1296 square inches" in area. The article mentions "ionocraft engineers" - which seems at the time of the writing, that more than one individual was playing with the things. The article further explains that "at present it takes 90 watts (30,000 volts at 3 milliamperes) to fly a two-ounce model. Translated into ordinary power-to-weight ratios, this works out to roughly .96 hp per pound, as compared with a typical .1hp per pound of helicopter or .065 hp for a pound of Piper Cub".
So, yeah - the problem was, and still is - the power supply. I wonder, though, if those numbers could be made better, and if a lightweight 12V lithium-ion was developed - if using an inverter (or something like it) for a CCFT (like the lightweight inverters used in today's laptops for the backlight) could be used as an "onboard" power source? If the numbers could be made better, then I bet it could be done (run-times would suck, but it would be a fun toy). Micro-miniature hobby helicopter building has shown that you can do a lot with very little - so I would think that creating an onboard supply for such a "craft" might be possible today...
Do you (or anyone else here) know how a 1 bit processor works? I have read a bit about the CM, and always come across the "1-bit processor" thing - but never have found enough information on how a 1-bit processor really works?
I have a feeling it is something like a single-instruction cpu (subtract then branch or something like that), but even more esoteric in practice. Furthermore, I tend to wonder how you write programs for such a machine (nevermind reducing a problem, if possible, to a parallel processing structure) - I mean, how would the real (assembler, or if need be, machine) code look like coming out of the compiler.
Does anyone know of a site detailing this kind of information? Kinda like "parallel processing for dummies" or something (I understand the high-level concepts of PP - I just don't understand all the background)?
I would do it myself if I had the points...
I do agree he should have mentioned what he would use on the project now - to find out what his preference was (hey, maybe instead of VB it was Delphi/Kylix?).
I also think it is funny the bickering on /. over C++ - I don't think it is the tool for every job. It has its place, but large scale apps can take a long time to create and debug in C++, and he has a point on the compilation cycle (which is another thing I like about VB - the ability to just make a change and run the thing. Then, when you are ready, commit to the full compile). Sometimes, the best thing to do is leverage the strengths of each language (as another poster mentioned, a combo like Python and C/C++ for the intense parts)...
Essentially, we had languages that were top-down (ie, no way to call a function and return - the closest old BASICs on micros got was GOSUB), then with functions (ie, var = func(), plus call sub() ), now OOP (though VB's OOP is horribly broken).
Finally, in response to "try writing some large programs in it" - I have. Currently, I maintain a 10,000+ line Visual Basic CRM app for the employer I work at. It isn't the greatest thing, but it helps run the company (my plans are to rewrite it in PHP and Smarty, running on Apache). I have also worked on (with different employers) both a very large insurance claims management software and a warehouse inventory and sales tracking software - each had over 100,000+ lines of code (probably a lot more - never took a true count on either code base), written in PICK BASIC (actually, VMark Software's UniVerse PICK). I know of many other large legacy style PICK BASIC applications as well in a wide range of industries. Chances are, if you see a "green-screen" VT-100 terminal style application, it is either going to be PICK or COBOL (most likely the latter, but the former also holds it share).
There isn't anything wrong with BASIC as a syntax - easy to read, easy to learn. Keep the basics (no pun intended), add some simple OOP statements - you would probably have a winning language. In general, BASIC's biggest problem (and it affects other languages as well, like C) is the ability to write massive, hard to debug and maintain codebases - throw in bad practices like adding GOTOs liberally (and there is *no reason* to do this anymore in BASIC), and you get a nightmare. Proper defining and use of called functions, along with included code segment files to break the code up helps - but not as much as an object oriented system would...
Yeah, I think that would work for at least 90% of the anti-spam bitmap entry systems...
Think about it - an open-source project of any large size requires more than a handful of developers. There are only a finite number of developers on the planet, and only a subset of those are willing to work on open-source projects. Now, of those, how many do you think have a) free time to devote to an open source project (which also may mean that they aren't contributing to other projects), and b) can work in the language being used, or pick it up quickly?
I can guarantee you that subset is rather small, perhaps in some cases non-existant, because many programmers with a good skillset like that (that is, they are C++ programmers for a long while and know their shit, or can pick up C++ rapidly) want to be *paid* for their work - thus those who just want to help out are few and far between.
Now, what if the project was developed in something much easier to pick up - or was more widely known? You would instantly have more developers willing to help out, simply because of the numbers knowing the language. Plus, ordinary users could easily pick up the language and help out, possibly fixing the bugs that bother them (and bugs which bother one user may not bother developers, but they probably bother a ton of other users).
Unfortunately, C++ is not the language that most people know. Java comes close, but it still is difficult for a lot of people to grasp. What most people *can* grasp (though it may not be best for application development, however, in most projects it won't matter if done right) is a language which has a much more "english-like" syntax, and can be programmed as a "functional language" (as opposed to requiring OOP, like Java). What does that leave most users with? That's right - VB. Is it any wonder that many (understatement - an absolute TON would be better) internal (and more than a few external) applications for businesses (that is, applications developed by businesses for business - whether it is for internal use or external sale) have been written in VB? Is it any wonder that Windows holds the desktop in businesses - wonder why? VB. Whether it is a real VB solution (ie, VB executable, etc) or an "Office" integrated solution (VB for Applications) - in the end, it comes down to VB, and users being able to quickly come up to speed on it.
Personally, I think this is one of the things holding back development by businesses on Linux (esp on the desktop) - the lack of such a tool. The closest I have seen has been Python with some windowing toolkit (to interface with X) tacked on, plus a gui designer to create the fancy forms - but none of this is as integrated as VB's IDE is, and while Python is a nice looking language (I can't really tell how good it is at things - I have never used it - currently playing and learning about Perl and PHP), it isn't BASIC.
I have never understood why there is such derision regarding BASIC - because that is the problem, it seems. At one time, BASIC was looked upon as a satisfactory language for a lot of projects - whether hobbiest or business. Even today, in business, you still have people creating large business application (think vertical markets) in what amounts to BASIC. Why is it that Parallax's microcontrollers became so popular so quickly? BASIC!
I think if inroads are to be made in the business realm on the desktop by Linux (and maybe even *nix distros in general), there needs to be a form of BASIC for users to create custom applications with. I am not saying that we should have it like Microsoft's vision (what with Outlook being able to willy-nilly run VBA scripts and such) - but a BASIC with perhaps sandbox capabilities for security, plus the ability be plugged into a variety of office applications, and a tight, clean IDE/debugger - that would help propel Linux onto the desktop in business.
Finally, let me say this - I am not saying BASIC (or VB) is the tool for every job - it isn't. But it is a nice general purpose tool which can help solve many problems in business, and it provides rapid turnaround for projects. If such a language or development environment were created for Linux, it would be a boon for both businesses and open source projects/developers.
Yeah? I have two first edition copies - why two? Because one is majorly fucked up: about halfway through the book, it "repeats" itself - and not from the beginning, but from somewhere in the middle from the first half - when I was first reading it, I thought I was losing my mind when I got to that point, then when I realized the mistake, I was doubly pissed because I then had to wait for a replacement from Amazon (who replaced the book for free, but never asked for the old one back - thus I kept them both, the bad one for curiosity sake, and the good one which I completed reading)...
Take a look at letters and such written by 8-11 year olds back in the 1800's, esp. the latter part. You will find that in many cases, those children of yesteryear were able to write and compose stories better than many contemporary adults, let alone children. I tend to wonder what this shift in ability says about where today's society is, and where it is heading...?
Hello - see this thread here for the places I was talking about. Another place - online only and catalog, I think - that I know of called Electronics Goldmine (located in Scottsdale) - do a google on it to find it. Another place I like is called All Electronics Surplus (I think it is located in the LA area) - they are great to order online and through the catalog. They tend to have interesting parts and such.
You mention one of the others I was thinking of (though I know it as "Equipment Exchange" - not ESE - got an interesting large LED "bargraph" device from them recently. I think the address is 7th Ave and Grant - but I may be wrong, too).
Last place I was thinking of was EMC - Elitech - on Indian School and *grumble* (ok, I think it is something like 28th Drive or 31st Drive or something - it is actually on a weird street behind the Levitz warehouse that has two names mashed together). They sometimes rip you on price, but that is where I got my LCDs at. I also have had good luck with other computer stuff there - but they do have "rip off" deals it seems (ie, stuff priced way higher than what it is worth)...
If you are planning on using it for recipies and similar "text only" needs, find an old 486 laptop, extend the LCD cable, and mount the LCD underneath the countertop. Cut a hole out for the LCD in the counter, and mount the LCD. Use a router to make a countersink edge for a piece of glass or lexan, set flush with the countertop, and sealed in place with clear aquarium silicone sealant (to keep liquids out). Extend the keyboard to a pullout location (a custom "cutting board" style "drawer" would be perfect). On the laptop, run some simple serial terminal software or lynx, and serve up text only via serial comms or a network card (if you have a pc card/pcmcia slot on the old laptop).
If you are looking for old LCDs, try to find the closest used computer recycling shop around your area. Look in the largest city near you. You want a place that is typically located in the "dregs" of the city - the industrial quarters, crack alley - if the city is a coastal city, like LA or San Diego, look into the dock/shipyard areas, too. There are plenty of places like this, many of them selling equipment and junk for fractions of a penny on the dollar. Some of them want to get rid of stuff so bad they will GIVE it to you! I know of three really great places like this here in the Phoenix, AZ area. Larger cities will probably have more to choose from.
These places will generally be scummy - you will get dirty standing still and touching nothing. But this is a *good* thing, because it means you have found a gold mine. Now, you just need to sort through the junk (it is rarely organized well, and even if it is organized, it still needs to be sifted through). Sometimes, you will find a rare gem.
Pertinant to your question, at one of the places I know of, they had got in a huge cache of SONY LCD monitors. The only problem was that most of them had the logic boards removed. However, I managed to find two that should mate together, once I get around to messing with them. Might be a total bust, though. Anyhow, for $25.00 I got two monitors, one with a busted screen, but the full logic intact, the other with a non-cracked screen, but no logic - mix and match until it works.
The other thing to consider is dumpster diving - you would be surprised at the amount of shit companies throw away. My job not too long ago threw out a Compaq P150 laptop with CD-ROM and sound. Took it home, powered it up, no screen. Turned out it was a busted backlight - one trip to Fry's Electronics and some soldering got the beast working perfectly. Picked up a cheap SODIMM to get the RAM up to max, dropped in a cheap Ebay laptop drive to bust that up - everything else is a-ok. Currently in the process of setting up Debian on it.
From trash to treasure - if my company did it, ALL COMPANIES DO IT. You just have to find where and when they do it, and be willing to ask them about their castoffs and junk, or dive in the dumpster. You may or may not find a usable LCD display this way, but I guarantee you will find usable "junk"...
1. Learn to balance your checkbook correctly
2. Spend less than you take in, and
3. Get a savings account.
I cannot stress that last one *enough*. While the first two are very important as well (and believe me, if you aren't balancing your checkbook, and you don't *know* where money is going - once you learn how or figure it out it will be an eye opener - you will also find out how many places *give* you stuff, and never take the money out of your account), that last one is a biggie - and is one I *wish* I had been told about when I was much younger and stupid.
Now that the time for getting tax returns back is here, if you are getting a refund, don't spend it - save it! If you can, live on ramen and macaroni for a while, and save as much money as you can (turn up the AC to higher levels this summer to save a ton - also, if you have a hot water heater, turn it down below 120 degrees). Don't buy frivolous things, learn to scrounge the trash. Stay home, and deal with what you already have, instead of buying more. All that extra money at the end of the month (after you have balanced your checkbook), transfer to the savings account. Build it up quick, and keep it for "just-in-case", or...
Buy a house! Ok, get a loan, and start paying it off - double up on payments, or pay the same amount twice a month (basically, you pay the same monthly amount, but pay half of it every two weeks, to cut down the owed interest) - build that equity, but plan to stay there for at least 10-15 years (otherwise, it isn't worth it), then if you want, use that equity to "move up" (either apply it to start a business, which is risky, but doable - or buy a "better" house - consider the first house a "starter"). Instead of flushing money into a rent hole, that money *stays yours* by applying it to property you gradually become the owner of (actually, you are always the owner, you just have a lien against the property by the bank that you pay off - the bank doesn't own the property, but if you break the loan contract, they can take it).
I wish I had known this a long time ago - I would probably be better off now. As it is, I have managed to get a house (in a month I will have been in it for a year now), have a savings account with a good sum of money in it (my wife and I saved for the down payment on the house, we paid that - and a year later have as much as we did last year in the account - we mainly use the money for home improvements and such). It has gotten to the point where any extra money (whether it is a bonus, extra leftover money, whatever), just gets stuck into the savings account. I have found that I have most of everything I want or need - I just don't have the urge to spend money left and right like I used to. That isn't to say I don't buy things I want to - that is the thing: when I need to or want to, I can - but I first think about the purchase, and decide whether I really need/want it, and if I do, then I get it - but I always try to spend as little for whatever it is as I can (but never sacrifice quality, better to spend more for better quality than to buy something that will break quickly)...
My birthday is coming up (the "big" 3-0, of course) - so I thought it would be in my best interest to have a full physical done. I had an idea that when the blood work came back, there would be hell to pay. I am your typical geek - little in the way of exercise, high fat/high carb food consumption (ie, Jack in the Box and KFC on a weekly basis, lots of home cooked meals like polish sausage and fried potatoes, grilled rib-eye steak, homemade fried pork chops), and worst of all, funky eating habits (no breakfast, no lunch, three helpings at dinner).
That all changed when I got my blood work back the next week, and was prescribed Lipitor for high cholesterol.
Attention all geeks - I cannot stress this enough - if you are overweight and eat like I eat, get your blood work done, and change your habits - before they get to a point where they kill you. It isn't hard to do, and can be a little fun (ok, not much - but it is interesting, to say the least).
Ok, so now I am on Lipitor for the immediate future. As soon as I got my bloodwork back, I was what could be called something like "low-high" range - in that I had more than reccommended total cholesterol (a bit over 200), a lot more of the bad cholesterol, and less than needed (a lot less) of the good cholesterol. I immediately (the night I picked up my prescription) changed my diet and my habits.
1. No more fast food, unless it is a healthy alternative like Subway (no mayo, etc), or some kind of chinese food (chicken and white rice, but the chicken can't be fried).
2. No more fried foods.
3. Eat on a regular basis - I now eat a breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner, all normal size portions - no more triple-helpings at "dinner".
4. Eat more grilled foods - chicken and seafood mainly, every now and then, pork (lean chops). The upside is that I love chicken - I just can't have it fried.
5. Eat more baked foods - lemon-pepper baked salmon and rice - yum!
6. Take a walk on regular basis - I now walk about 1-2 miles every evening after I eat.
7. Park further away from places - this isn't something I always do, but I do more often now - not only do you get a parking space all the time, but you get a bit of exercise as well.
8. No more "sweets" - ie, processed snack cakes, candy bars, etc.
9. Drink less soda - no more 44 oz drinks from Circle K - I drink a lot more water now, I also buy flavored/carbonated water. I also drink a fair amount of soy milk (Silk brand is the best I have found, so far).
10. If you drink milk, go with 1-2%, and where you can stand it, drink soy milk as I noted above - I tend to buy vanilla flavored, and have it with cherrios for my breakfast.
11. Eat more fruit and vegetables - steam your vegatables when/where you can - or roast them, or bake them, or have them raw.
12. When you are full, stop eating - this isn't as hard if you are eating regularly. When I switched to a breakfast/lunch/dinner schedule of eating, I found out I was eating a lot less food, and I filled up quickly.
When you buy food, look for the lowest of everything on the back - however, most of the time you will have to compromise. Typically, if it is low fat, it is high carb - or it will be vice-versa. Rarely will you find foods (especially processed foods) that are "perfect" in all categories. Many foods are actually completely "empty" - they have calories, and that's it - Redi-Whip is like this. What is nice about these is that if you keep your daily calorie count low enough, you can use redi-whip, chocolate syrup, and low-fat vanilla ice cream and have a nice "sweet" that isn't too bad for you.
Eat more fish and seafood - salmon, catfish and others are pretty good eats, prepared right. Just don't dip in batter and fry - bake or grill instead. Grilled pork chops with barbeque sauce are fi
For a long time, we were having corruption issues, and didn't know what the reason was - it got so bad, that I ended up writing a patch to custom sync records on tables with a backup - that is, if a user changed a record, it would be saved prior to the change, then saved after - if any corruption happened, the system would sense this, flag the record, and pull the old record from the backup table. This worked fairly good (it was randomized and distributed across the running instances of the app, so it would only "bog down" one person at a time), but it was far from ideal - and when the backup table became corrupted...
Eventually, our sysadmin of the NT server we were hosting the Access DB file on figured out the problem - it turned out that there is a file locking flag setting (I cannot tell you the exact name of the switch - I appologize), that when it was off (or on?) would cause these corruption issues. When we flipped it, the problem went away completely.
Of course, this doesn't answer your question - but it does answer the question of whether corruption is truely an issue with a multi-user Access DB. For your question, I think I would handle it in the following manner:
First off, you would want to consolidate the tables of the DB's involved. 50 separate DB's seem like way too many - I can understand if some are set up for one department, and others for another - if that is the case, group the tables together in that manner, and get the DBs organized. Next, you will want to set up indexed primary key fields on those tables that have similar keys (or same keys) - for selection performance and SQL JOIN reasons. You will then want to make some kind of front-end (or modify the one you already have - which it doesn't sound like you have one, or if you do - it is an Access front -end).
The thing you have to realize about Access (speaking of 97 here - not sure about recent versions) - is that it expects to be "local" to the client - that is, it is opened like a file, and not in a "client-server" true-ODBC fashion. From what I understand, what the JET engine does when you access it via ODBC is the same as if you were accessing it as a file under DAO - just one small level of redirection - it isn't possible to use ODBC on the database otherwise. If you want real ODBC functionality, then I suggest you convert your database(s) over to PostgreSQL or something, then set up a client based DSN-less connection using a VB or Java front-end (or, if you don't want the pain of maintaining multiple client installs, set up Perl, PHP, or Java servlet system to query and display results from the DB - look into LAMP systems as well, if you want to really do some fun stuff).
In theory, you could code a service type application in VB that could talk via TCP/IP to clients, passing SQL queries, and it would use that against the Access DB, then return back a recordset (maybe with requests and responses in XML format) - you would have to do some kind of session management, so you know who requested what, and when - managing queues of requests and responses. Not sure how well it would work, though...
Ideally, your best bet is to get away from Access, and on to something better - then build front-ends to the data that limit what the users can do to the data (also, build in an audit table with functions to update it - pass the function say a key value, a type, a new value, and an old value - the audit table would store this information, along with a timestamp and user name - so you know who changed what when, and they can't lie about it if they bork the database). Finally, set up a system to back up those DBs if you don't already do it (I would hope you do).
I always describe this as being like a neuron in the brain, or an ant in an anthill. Neither is aware of the larger picture, but enough brought together create fantastic structures, and in one, a thinking, sentient organism. The bad part (which is what I am risking here, if any of this is true) comes when one thinks about "what if one of your neurons (or other cells) became 'aware' in some manner that it was part of a larger whole, and how to manipulate or subvert that larger whole?" - this would be a great danger to that larger entity. If such a thing happenned to a human, then that individual would probably do everything possible to rid itself of the rogue cell, up to and including suicide, if that is what it took. So, would an "artificial" socially "constructed" emergent entity do the same? Perhaps - if it recognized that the "parts" were wandering, so to speak.
Emergent behavior depends on a few basic things, mainly communications between the "nodes" (the unit parts) that make up the group, as well as feedback loops to these units. These two things exist in most emergent systems. I think there is another, though, that must exist for an emergent entity to be sentient (and what sentience means to an emergent entity is unknown to us humans - such a large emergent intelligence would most likely be nearly incomprehensible to us at our level - we don't currently know what to look for, or how to "psychoanalyze" an emergent entity to determine mental state or acuteness) - and that is size.
I think for an emergent system to become intelligent and sentient, the size must be somewhere over 1000 units, perhaps more. Such sizes would include governments, corporatations, and cities. Whether or not any of these groups are emergent beings is up for debate, but I think in some way they are. We, as humans would not anthropomorphize them if they didn't seem to exhibit traits we find in ourselves (because we are emergent entities as well). We describe governments and corporations in many human terms - however, the most disturbing is that in many cases we describe these groups in terms, that if applied to a human, would seem to indicate the onset or an full-blown case of mental degradation or disease (most likely MPD or schitzophrenia at best - psychotic as well, sociopathic behavior, too). However, we don't seem to question this when it comes to large groups of people.
My needs are varied. I am (because I am not quite done with my manager yet) forced to save my Mozilla bookmarks I keep at work, zip them up, email them home, then update my Mozilla at home. I have written some scripts on both ends to help automate this to some extent, but it is still a pain, and it doesn't address a few areas that currently exist in most bookmark lists: duplicates, categories, dead links, and accessibility.
Honestly, the first two can be thought of as almost the same problem. I keep my links very organized, in a hierarchical tree of folders and such in the Mozilla bookmark list. But sometimes (actually, a lot of times), you want to have a bookmark be in two (or more) locations at once, so when you are thinking of something, you can just browse there, get the link, and it is there. A case would be a site on converting or building a hydrogen powered vehicle - do you put it in the automotive site category, the alternate energy site category, or the diy site category - or all three? Preferably, the latter should be the option, but now you have increased your storage requirements by n-times (where n is the number of possible categories the link could fall into). You could drop all links into one folder, and put in the comments area key words to search on - but you would have to come up with a standard set of keywords. This isn't very workable. You also wouldn't know if a link has been duplicated, because the list won't tell you that. When you have hundreds of links, duplication can easily occur. There is also no way to track down and eliminate dead links (except by visiting and updating the tree manually). Finally, there is no way to access your link tree from a computer on the other side of the world, unless you stick a copy somewhere on a server every now and then.
I got sick of all this, and started to write a web-based Perl CGI system for tracking bookmarks. When I am done, it will have:
A category system, so that only one link needs to be stored, with multiple categories. Searches will be with a logic (AND, OR, NOT) system allowing you to search for multiple categories (which *are* the keywords) selected from dropdown lists (these categories are also user updatable, so categories can be added, updated, and deleted). The categories are defined with keys, which allow a category to be modified independent of its key, so that the name and description can be updated and it affects all uses (the key *cannot* be updated - a category can only be deleted if all links using it are deleted or the category dropped first). There will be a special "favorites" or "quicklink" category to show those links on the front page that are the most accessed - like Google, Slashdot, and others.
There is a user "login" database, with autorization levels, so that bookmarks and categories can be put "off-limits" to the various categories. This login system is set up such that when a user logs in, a "session key" is generated and stored (using a unique hash code made from the login and date/time stamp), which is then put into every generated link so that each area know who is accessing it, and matches the sid to what is on the login table. This allows me to eliminate the use of cookies. It isn't a perfectly secure way of doing things, but this app isn't meant to be Fort Knox, either.
There is also a ratings system (1-5 stars), which I hope to allow all users to access, so users can "rate" a site for other users.
In the future I also hope to have a system to allow users to set up "private" bookmark lists, and via the auth system allow them
Your greatest expense with metal working will be in the tools, not the metal itself (ok, metal is more expensive than wood - and don't get me started on retail pricing of thick plate steel - but that is why you get your metal scrap, surplus, or wholesale). If you have tools for woodworking, you probably have the bare minimum of what you need (electric drill and jigsaw). You will need different bits and blades for those (mark the blades with an indelible ink so you know which is which, unless the blade is an "all purpose" - this goes doubly so if you use a fine blade for plastics). You will probably also want to get a drill press, if you don't already have one. Those are the basic tools.
With those tools, you can build quite a lot - if you don't mind bolting/screwing things together. You can also get very creative with JB Weld (that stuff is *very* strong if used properly), if you want. If the metal is very lightweight stuff, soldering with a torch is possible, too (use acid core solder here). Also, look into brazing and alluminum rod soldering (it is like a form of brazing, but it used special rod for alluminum and a stainless steel brush) - both tried and true techniques for quick, easy, and strong metal joining (most bicycles are held together via brazed joints, not welded joints).
After that, you get into "heavier duty" metal work - which also translates into more expense (most generally for the tools). Believe me, when you cut your first piece of plate steel using an oxy-acet torch (look at the running molten slag, feel the heat, smell the burning steel - don't let it hit your feet!) - you won't want to do it any other way. Alright, you don't *need* such a torch, but it is a handy (though expensive) tool. Really, for entry level work here, you need a low-power arc welder, and some kind of cutoff tool.
When you first start looking, you will find there are many types of arc welders, and most of them are pretty expensive. If you have the money, get a 220V AC/DC welder with a nice range setting, and have an electrician wire up an outlet for you with a dedicated breaker. Sometimes, you can make a conversion cord for the AC outlet an electric dryer or water heater is connected to (generally 220V appliances) - you need such a cord or box because the plug on "consumer" 220VAC and "industrial" 220VAC machinery are different. However, you won't be able to run both at the same time.
These welders tend to be expensive (and hiring an electrician to run a line increases this expense) - so if you have to get one, get a good one. I would personally reccommend a Lincoln 225 (the AC/DC type - not AC only - they make both) - it will do everything you are likely to throw at it. It is a rod arc welder (there are wire feed welders, both gas and gasless - but they can be more expensive still - get used to rod, then move to wire later). You will need to get a helmet, chipping hammer, gloves, steel brushes, and a place to work (typically, your driveway or back porch - you may want to invest in some 1/4-1/2 inch piece of plate steel as a surface protector - a 3x3 foot piece should suffice for many things). You will run into a lot of difficulties welding - the biggest one is the rod sticking (this is where DC comes in - DC sticks less). If the rod sticks, wiggle it to break the rod away, or release the "stinger" from the rod to break the circuit. There are a number of other issues (blowing holes, starting the arc, keeping the arc going, running the bead, etc) - so many numerous things I can't describe them all here (maybe I should make a FAQ?). It can be frustrating, but also fun. Never look at the arc directly. Always wear a dark t-shirt when welding (the flash can get under the helmet, and while y
The pipe is lightweight, strong, and easy to bend (with a heat gun - here in Phoenix, AZ you could just let it sit in the sun in July). I think the guys track design needs to be different, though.
I would go with using 4x4 posts in concrete footers sunk at least 3 feet into the ground. For tall supports, I would "stack" the 4x4s end to end, and use 2x4s to "surround" and join the posts together, using long lag bolts or something (so the final post would be 8x8 in thickness, approximately). I would brace the bottom of the post with a "teepee" style angle bracing.
To attach the PVC pipe rails to the posts, I would build spanners (or whatever they are called in roller coaster parlance) from plywood (probably 3/4 inch exterior grade), and the track would have "joins" at these points (where the rail is split) - at these joins I would cut the pipe in such a manner as to build some form of inner joiner connector that could be bolted to the spanner, but leave the rest of the pipe intact on the top side so there was little to no gap. The pipe would be loosely connected to the joiners (which would extend at least 8 inches or more into the pipe), so that thermal expansion would not hinder the setup.
More "floating" spanners would be constructed (probably from 3/8 inch plywood) to keep the track separated properly in between the support poles. I would also have a third support pipe running along the bottom (just like you see in most steal coasters today - it forms a very strong triangular cross-section).
Done right, with good PVC pipe, and painted, it would be a hell of a coaster. It would be pretty cheap to build - most of the cost would be in the wood, not the pipe. If you used ABS pipe (which you can sometimes get with thicker walls, so it is stronger for "rail use"), it would be slightly more costly, but not really much - and you would get to have black track to boot!
Looking at these coasters makes me wish I had the money to buy a 40-acre plot in the desert to set a home on and build one - someday, perhaps...
Several years ago, we rented and moved into house owned by the parents of my brother-in-law. This house was a hand built extraveganza of parts, sitting on several acres of land out in the (then - it was built in the early 1970's) desert of north Phoenix, Arizona (today, a lot of other stuff has grown up around it - but the land is worth a lot, due to a new freeway having been built to the immediate south of it - but I digress).
My brother-in-law's father, at the time, was in the building demolition business, so a lot of what went into that house came from other buildings (the roof trusses and steel I-beams, mainly) - but I wouldn't doubt if the wiring and other things did also. The house was *huge* - we only lived in half of it, because the other half was for storage - as it was, our half was around 2500 to 3000 square feet.
The interior of the house, when we moved in, was - well - interesting, to say the least. When we moved in, we had to do a lot of cleaning and painting, because the prior renters were slobs and nearly destroyed what was left. We nicknamed the place "The 70's Mystery Mansion" - once you saw it, you would know why - but I will attempt to describe it:
Imagine a house with roof trusses so big and strong that there are no intervening support walls - that is, all the interior wall could "go away", yet the roof would still be strong - about 100 feet long, and 75 feet wide. Make the exterior walls grey concrete block, with a dark grey (almost black) mortar. On the interior, these exterior walls are not painted or covered, except in the bedrooms and bathrooms. Imagine the entire exterior surrounded by a brick "facade", made of of columns and arches, completely surrounding the house, and the roof supported by it and the house exterior walls, so that there is a constant shade "patio" surrounding the entire house. Out front, dirt, crushed granite, a few boulders, and some sagaguro (sp?) cacti towering high. The front of the house has a ton of windows, nearly floor to ceiling in size (8 foot ceilings), and a window in each bedroom. All of the windows are covered with steel bars anchored to the block. The front doors are two steel screen french-style doors, and inside of them are two solid wood "french" doors, black in color, with golden bubbled-glass inserts (transparent, but not clear).
Inside, the carpet is avocado green, except for the bedrooms, where two are rust colored, one is purple, and the bathroom is royal blue. Imagine a tub so big in this bathroom that a 40 gallon water tank only fills it to about 3 inches of water. Imagine dark wood paneling in these bedrooms. Imagine multi-colored sparkle cottage cheese ceilings. Imagine wanting to claw your eyes out...
But it was the kitchen where the strange shit happened - the kitchen, of all places...
The kitchen was just as funky as the rest of the house - the countertop was acrylic resin, into which was embedded various sea-shells and rocks, and coral. The floor was industrial tile, the cabinets were more darkness (but woohoo! - they had reversible cabinet fronts - except the reverse was some kind of odd black lined grid with various orange and brown geometric shapes on a white background - blech!) - and the stove, well...
The stove was in a class by itself - white (IIRC), but it worked OK. The dishwasher (before it finally died) was harvest gold. The range hood (which is where the freakiness was), was a black sloping medieval (or moorish) style construct (if you have ever seen the "Galloping Gormet" on FoodTV, the same style stuff was in his set kitchen). It was dirty when we moved in - super dirty (we are talking like major grease buildup here). We tried to clean it, but didn't get much off - it either needed a major steam cleaning, or simply replaced - in a word, it was NASTY.
At the time we were cleaning it, we tried to turn on the fan and the light, to see if they worked at all - they did. The light came on OK, the fan turned quickly and with a lot of power.
Recently I was replacing the backlight in a laptop's LCD screen. I bought the backlight (which is a thin, cold-cathode flourescent tube - about 3mm in diameter and 200mm or so long) from Fry's Electronics, and brought it home in the plastic bag. I took it out of the bag (but still in its package) and walked across the room - and it flashed briefly, but brightly. At first it startled me, then I realized that the static electricity buildup was discharging in the tube. I found that you could crumple up the plastic bag in a ball, and run it on the backside cardboard of the package, and the resulting dumb of static electricity in the tube would light it up at the point where the bag was on the length of the tube (the whole tube didn't light up, just a section). It wasn't as bright, but could clearly be seen, especially when the lights were turned off. I then quit messing with it and repaired the laptop...
The question is regarding the portable instrument used to make cauterized cuts. I remember back in the early 90's seeing in a Popular Science or Popular Mechanics magazine a blurb in the "new technology" section about a handheld laser device, about the size of a flashlight, being developed by DARPA for in-field surgery needs in time of war. It seems like a possible thing to build, though I would think the power supply would be much larger (at least backpack size), and that a cable would connect the laser end to the power supply, or the backpack would contain the laser system, and the "cable" would be a fiber-optic conduit (though how they would cool it would be another matter - yes, fiber can get warm).
Now, whether this was just a "blue-sky" device or something, I don't know - the interesting thing is that cattle mutilations have been reported for a long time, long before the early 1990s (and interestingly, I think even before the "UFO Wave" of the 1940's - though that is when it picked up steam, so to speak).
One point not made in the post of the question (though I am sure it can be found with good searching of google), is that some of the cows (and other animals) have been found in muddy areas - with no tracks around or leading to/away from the bodies.
I don't know if it is UFOs, or whether it is crazy DARPA engineers flying around in black helicopters, or something else entirely. Considering that it has happened in many countries, in many locations in the countries, I tend to doubt it is just one group, nor do I think it is the farmers hoaxing people (the animals are expensive - you don't kill your source of revenue unless you are truely nutso - the probability that all the farmers and keepers of the animals being insane mutilators just isn't feasible). The scary thing is that it is happenning, and nobody seems to really give a damn.
Perhaps when numerous people start turning up this way, there will be some notice...