The word "tweens" has been around for a few years...
Now, Tolkien notwithstanding (in which he was arguably the first person to use the word, to describe what could be called "twenty-somethings"), in marketing-speak, tweens are those people who are not quite "teens" - ie, 10, 11, and 12 year olds (get it? TWelve/tEEN/TWEEN? Or, in beTWEEN childhood and teenagers).
This "modern" usage of the word first came about sometime in the early 1990's.
Please don't mod down though, I am sure others here probably have the same question!
Can you explain (or better, point me to a source explaining) what is meant in networking terminology when you say/24's,/30's - and definitions of classes (A, B, C, etc), as well as what it means when you see like an IP followed by a/nn (like, oh, 27.141.102.18/24 or similar).
This is something I have been curious about for a long time, and would like to learn more (whether it would be useful to me or not).
Thank you for any help you or others can provide...
I have to say that one of my pastimes is collecting computer history - not just books on the history, but a little of the history itself. My favorite books are those I have which, when read, are contemporary accounts of "state-of-the-art" computer systems - and which give super-in-depth treatment to exactly how mercury delay lines, drum storage, and core memory works. I have a few punched cards, and some other strange devices (pixie tubes, etc).
However, I always look for information on Babbage - so it surprised me the other day to be browsing at a local Bookstar and seeing this book - I had to have it, as my collection is "sparse" when it comes to Babbage (there really isn't much out there about his machines, at least in paper form - Fourmilab is actually the best resource online). A quick thumbing through told me this was a book worth getting. It was actually kinda strange finding that book, because I also managed to stumble upon the only copy they had of Leonardo's Notebooks Volume 1 (I already had Volume 2), which is all of his treatises about art and the human form. Anyhow, I purchased the Babbage book and started reading it last night.
But have you ever given thought to what it would take to build a mechanical calculating machine? It is really quite a complex task. Even if you had a machine shop, it would be a daunting endevour. I have always wondered if it were possible to build such a machine using Lego. I have never really taken the idea past the conceptual stage. I know about the (MIT?) tinkertoy based tic-tac-toe "computer" - so building a computer from a toy system is feasible, in some manner. Lego seems perfectly suited.
I only know of one individual who has managed to go from concept to at least partial reality, using Lego:
I have had email conversations with this individual, and have gained a little insight into how he is doing things - but it has been a long while since I have emailed him - so I don't know if he has gotten any further, or what. He seems to have some idea of what it would take, though.
Does anyone know of any other similar construction efforts?
Also, if anyone cares - on themes.org I have a Babbage "tribute" wallpaper...
Want a real robot pet?
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New AIBO Demo'd
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· Score: 5, Informative
I still dig on AIBO, but until it is smart enough to home in on its base station and recharge itself when its batteries are running low, it's hard to consider AIBO ready for prime time.
First off, get off your duff and decide to build your robot "pet", instead of buying one. While you may or may not have the skills needed, they can be learned and developed. After you have built your robot "pet", and actually see it working - you will know true joy at seeing something you built actually doing things - perhaps even things that make it seem "pet-like".
But where to start?
You could start with familiar books on the shelf at a local Bookstar or Amazon, such as The Robot Builder's Bonanza: 99 Inexpensive Robotics Projects by Gordon McComb (ISBN 0-07-136296-7). However, while I strongly reccommend this book, it focuses more on the mechanical side of things (which _is_ important), but not the software/logic side, which for behavioral systems, will be very important (otherwise it just becomes a programmed or r/c car with a "robot" look). So what should one do?
If you want to build a real robotic pet, here are the books you should have in your library of robotic books (among others, of course):
The David L. Heiserman "Series":
Build Your Own Working Robot (Hardbound: ISBN 0-8306-6841-1 - Softbound: ISBN 0-8306-5841-6), TAB Book 841
How to Build Your Own Self-Programming Robot (Hardbound: ISBN 0-8306-9760-8 - Softbound: ISBN 0-8306-1241-6), TAB Book 1241
Robot Intelligence (with experiments) (Hardbound: ISBN 0-8306-9685-7 - Softbound: ISBN 0-8306-1191-6), TAB Book 1191
Though looong out of print, these three volumes are essential, and should be read in the order given, as they build upon one another. The final book in the series picks up where the prior one left off, but goes in the direction of software based "virtual" robots - an early form of virtual artificial life, if you will. However, it is clearly seen that the author intended the reader to apply these programs toward the robot designed and built in the prior book - and thus take them from the virtual to the "real".
Another book worth exploring is called "How to Build Your Own Working Robot Pet" by Frank DaCosta (TAB Book 1141 - sorry, no ISBN, my copy is shipping currently) - also long out of print. From what I remember in the edition I read, it details how to build a small robot with very definite pet-like qualities (whereas Heiserman focused on what he termed "Evolutionary Adaptive Machine Intelligence" or EAMI for short). I am not sure if there was any contact between Heiserman and DaCosta, but both of their books, and a host of others (notably ones by Edward L. Safford) were published around the same time frame by TAB Books. All of the devices described by DaCosta and Heiserman had the capability (depending on your skills) of auto-recharging themselves when their batteries got low (indeed, Heiserman believed such capability was a paramount thing for an autonomous system, and went into great detail on the design of the system and the "coding" and logic for it).
What is most amazing about all of these authors was the time when they were doing this, which was the late 1970's through early 1980's. Such robotic experimentation peaked at around the mid-1980's, then for unknown reasons, went underground. Hobby robotics is now starting to pick up again with a new generation, but the newcomers seem to have lost the "history" behind their experimentations.
These old hobby robot experiments still have great value for experimentors today. Read the books I have outlined above, and apply the principles (I would not suggest anyone to apply the exact methods used in building the original robots - as it just wouldn't be cost effective anymore - both of the first two Heiserman books effectively detailed building small computer systems, the first nearly entirely logic based, with a very Brooks-like subsumptive architecture, long before Brooks - and the second a true 8-bit computer system, using Intel's 8085 CPU!). However, these principles could easily be applied to a BASIC Stamp, or to nearly any other microcontroller - or you could go a step further and use an on-board laptop motherboard or similar.
These are the books I would recommend - apply the "old-school" knowledge of Heiserman, DaCosta, and if you want, Safford - and meld it with a little of Brooks and McComb - imagine the possibilities!
Finally, while you are at it - think of this for me:
Note these older TAB Books - how well laid out they were, how clear the diagrams and details were, the way everything is described, as well as the graphic art. Then take another look at today's so-called "technical" books: hardly will you find an equivalent. Even a recent look between McComb's first and second edition of his "Robot Builder's Bonanza" (I have both) will show you what has occurred - a true loss in quality (the first edition was published by TAB Books, the second by McGrawHill, under some "TAB Electronics" name).
I also want you to think and wonder about where these early robots, and their builders, went - were they relegated to a scrap yard (the robots, not the builders)? Do their builders still own them? Are they in a museum some where?
I seriously wonder about these things - I have a ton of old robot books from the early 1970's to the mid-1980's describing these robots, and there is hardly any information about where they ended up at! History lost! Both hobbiest and commercial ventures seem gone to history (I tend to wonder, on the commercial end, what happened to the Mosher/GE Hardiman "suit", as well as Odetics, Inc's ODEX-1?). Tod Lofburow's (sp?) KIM-1 based triangular hobby robot (which he described in another TAB book, if you want to look it up). I remember in another book a fascinating picture of a six-foot tall humanoid appearing robot named C.H.A.R.L.I.E., who was named after the builder, but the acronym stood for something, which wasn't detailed in the book, as the book was less of a technical book, and more of a "coffee table"-type book - where did this robot end up at? Are all of these devices collecting dust? Will they end up on Ebay?
Please - if anyone has ANY answers, I would most appreciate them...
I can understand your point - here in Phoenix we had them at an "Ozone" center (that was the name of the place) that charged $5.00 a game (and other tiers) - they moved between different malls, and at the last mall they were at (that I know of, which was Superstition Springs mall), they had the 2000 series.
Keep trying to aquire them - just don't expect the owner to "give" them to you - even a used 1000 model goes for around $5000.00 (when they were sold new, they went for about $25,000.00). If the owner doesn't know the value of them, you might be able to go as low as $3000.00 - but it would be tough.
I thought about buying one of those used systems once - but as I gave it more thought, I realized that instead of spending all that money on something like that, I could probably build the system myself using parts I had, plus parts I could buy - it just wasn't cost effective to buy it ready made. But if you want it to try to make a buck off of (I thought about going to swap meets, etc), that is a possibility...
I have given thought to this - it is feasible to homebrew such a system (and if anyone does, let me know about it - I would love to see pics!).
Basically, for an easy to build system, you want the CD-ROM or RW drive to travel vertically - so you set up some kind of elevator/trolly system, controlled by a stepper motor, along with some kind of pulse sensor (optical encoder) along the track the drive is travelling on so you know how far up or down the track you are. Opposite the CD drive track, you need to have some kind of disk holding system, which will hold the disks horizontally.
Now, all you do is raise the drive to the proper spot just below the disk, eject the tray, lift the disk up, then "inject" the tray. Perform your operations (reading/writing), then eject the disk, drop down a bit (to mount the disk back in its holding "slot"), then "inject" the tray and move to the next selected disk.
For this to work, you would have to modify the tray to look kinda like a forklift - by cutting away (break out the Dremel!) the front center portion of the tray.
Issues you will run into: 1) Weight of CD drive - remove as much of the covering as possible - this will eliminate a ton of weight. 2) Cable length - you may have to use SCSI for this to have any hope of working - it would probably be better to use one of those ultra small motherboards, and mount it to the drive and have it travel with the drive. 3) Control - you will probably have to create a custom control system hooked up to the parallel port or similar to drive the thing. 4) Software - oh, yeah - that part: if done right, this thing could be running linux and almost be like a funky samba server or ftp server - send a command to get a certain disk, and that disk would be mounted as/dev/cdrom or something.
Regarding CD binder pages - these can be pretty cheap - go down to office max or staples, and buy several packs of these, and a few cheap binders. Keep liner notes/manuals in one binder, CDs in the others. Most of the time you won't need the liner notes, but when you do, they'll be handy.
Why I like Forte...
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Java IDEs?
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· Score: 4, Informative
When I first saw Forte (and prior to that, NetBeans) - I knew there was something good there. The main reason I like it: It make Java almost as easy to code in as VB.
Drag and Drop controls, property settings, code linking - very, very easy - and Java! Don't get me wrong, I know how to code Java using a text editor, etc (NEdit is my favorite) - but it is a bitch to do Swing "by hand" - Forte takes the pain away (for the most part - some of the more custom stuff you still have to do by hand, and it has its glitches - but it still beats hand coding to whip out a quick app).
What I hate about Forte: It is a resource intense HAWG!!! In order to be able to use it at all, you need at least a 300-350 MHz machine, and at least 256 MB of RAM - the faster you go and the more memory, the better it is (my first experience with Forte was on a P200pro w/ 64 MB RAM - don't try it unless you like watching your disk grind away)...
It sounds like you are basing the entire idea that "VR is dead" because you don't like the Virtuality 1000 (which is what you pictured)...?
To be honest, the Virtuality 1000 wasn't a superb piece of machinery, but at the time, it was the lowest cost, best made solution for VR entertainment.
Was the HMD big and heavy? Yes. Was the HMD low-res? Yes. Was there "lag"? Yes.
But if you played properly, and "looked past" the pixels (instead of what too many people did, which was to focus on the pixels) - there was a whole 'nother world in that box...
The Virtuality 1000's HMD (the Visette) was actually a very nice HMD - its folded optics design allowed for a relatively wide FOV with full focus adjustment (so that if you wore glasses, you could still use it). It provided nearly full immersion. The 1000 was also based on a souped up (OC'd?) Amiga 3000, with a ton of custom processing boards for graphics and sound, as well as 3D tracking (you could, for instance, actually duck and croutch as you played).
Dactyl Nightmare was the "premier" game for the 1000 - a funky form of paintball where not only you shot at other players on this strange "floating" game arena, but you had to watch out for (and/or kill!) a flying pterodactyl that would grab you and drop you to your death!
Anyhow, you can't base your whole opinion on that one system - did you ever play the Virtuality 2000 system? Much lighter equipment, much lighter and higher-res HMD - great equipment.
I have yet to try out Cybermind's (which is who W Industries/Virtuality became) new systems - I hope to next time I visit Vegas - but I have no doubt that they will be great machines.
Check out my URL - I am one of the "underground" sites (though I haven't had much time to do anything lately) - there are others out there.
Cybermind are the rebadged form of W Industries - and seem to still be a big player in the commercial entertainment uses of VR (mostly in Europe and some parts of the US).
Other areas VR is being used in is commercial and academic research - mostly CAVE-style setups. NASA helped start up (via a grant) Flogiston, which sells the "flostation", with an interest in using it to train astronauts. The DOD has their "Dismounted Soldier" training project (a good site is Rudy Darken's site, but it appears to be having problems).
One thing I desperately want to do is republish, in CD form, the entire PCVR magazine archive (of what I have - which is all of the back issues, and a bit of the software that came on floppy). I have tried to contact the original publisher through numerous leads, but no luck (his name is Joeseph Gradecki - if anyone knows of his whereabouts, please contact me). I tend to wonder what the response would be if I did something like this. I figure it would at the minimum help the homebrew VR community (what little is left of it).
And most of it is used!? What the hell do you have on those machines - a ton of MP3s and porn?
Seriously - I couldn't care less what you had, but you need to ask some serious questions here. You talk about four computers with 300 gig of storage, so that is around an 80 gig drive per machine. What you first need to do is consolidate and eliminate duplicate material - ie, build a fileserver, and eliminate redundant data.
How many of those MP3s are kept local on each machine, as copies, etc - when there should only be one copy? Same with those mpegs and jpegs, and any other kind of data.
When and where possible, drop as much of that data to CDs, and remove it off the hard drives - in fact, if I was in your position, I would build a machine with four of those 80 gig drives, then drop small 8 gig drives in each local machine. Partition that 8 gig drive into a 2 gig system partition a four gig application partition, and a 2 gig data partition. Give each user space as well on the fileserver. Put all the MP3s on the fileserver, and hook everyone and the fileserver up through a 100Mb switch. Also, each user can backup their data on their data partition to whatever medium suits them (to the fileserver, to a floppy, to a CD - whatever suits the amount of data they have), and forget the rest (in the event of a real problem, it can be reinstalled from the original disks, or from a backup on the fileserver).
You may also want to partition the fileserver, depending on the type of data being stored (or simply keep certain data on certain drives). Then, decide what is important, and what isn't (is an MP3 important - or is that 300 page dissertation important), and backup the important stuff to CD. Perhaps build a second machine to act as a "mirror" of some sort.
None of these suggestions should substitute for a real backup solution - so you can only do what you can with the money and stuff you have. But there is a way to keep most of what you have safe enough...
Agreed - PowerGloves are not what they are all cracked up to be, but they are easy to hack for a PC. Your comments and ideas are all valid (in fact, look around my site, and you will find an old "issue" of an online "zine" I wrote for VR called "Cheap VR" - issue 2 deals with building your own homemade glove and wireless tracker.
The issue of tactile feedback is an appropriate issue, which is something I have considered. Using an object to represent what you are using or navigating with can be more "intuitive" and understandable. I suppose that is why there is a prevalance of "wand" type devices used in CAVES. One thing I have thought about playing with is this small "off-table" trackball, that you fit one finger through trigger style, and the other goes around the front - there is a trigger button, and two front buttons. The thumb controls the trackball - this would allow navigation as well as manipulation in a 3D environment. Coupled with a chorded keyboard, it could be a useful system.
What I was meaning by cheap LCD TV's, are the portable ones, you know - like the small 1 and 2 inch Casio and Sony portables - it used to cost (back in the PCVR days) around $200.00 for one of these things - something that would then need to be taken apart, and good luck if you screwed up.
Today, such TV's can be had for well under $100.00 - I saw at Fry's one day a whole end-cap full being sold for $80.00 each - much more cost effective.
Now, personally, I don't really like Fry's - they screwed with me one too many times. But, to each his own - I mentioned them because a lot of/.'ers know about them, and have one close by. If it was me, I would look into portable TVs online or something.
You are right about the geometry aspect of a CAVE - I wasn't trying to invalidate this individual's work or anything - I was just bemoaning the fact that people look at this, and think wow! I want that - but then never realize that it is possible to do something like it on the cheap - it is almost like the early 90's never happened (in regard to homebrew VR, REND386, and the like).
If everyone playing was using a similar setup, we would have a virtual form of paintball, in a way. That, and if nobody would cheat (something I hate about online and network play - it seems like everyone and their brother uses cheats and bots, rather than relying on true skill - and to make things worse, those with true skill invariably get accused of cheating! Why not a little honesty, for f--k's sake?)...
But FPS's are one thing - and even if it were done, it would be nice to see it done homebrew style, even if it didn't help, and perhaps hindered (due to the reasons you specify). I would just simply love to see a complete homebrew VR CAVE setup, or similar (heh, it would be fun to see a homebrew version of Dactyl Nightmare, using PCs, hacked powergloves, hacked stuntmasters, etc - man, what I would give to play that game again)...
Anyhow, that is how I see it - there are a lot of applications for VR, and not much has been explored in the homebrew arena...
I am not a mathematician, and thus probably have very little use for this individual's collection of knowledge. Still, I can recognize it as being a valid and valuable resource to those that are mathematicians, or who are studying math. Even though I am neither, I suppose there may even come I time where I might want to use this resource.
Reading Eric's Commentary about what happened to MathWorld - I can't help but think that in then end, he and his employer got screwed - and HARD. As part of the agreement between them and CRC, they have to continue to pay, and to allow other's information passed on, in one form or another (either original form in which the author agrees to CRC's boilerplate agreement, or in a rewritten form, which Eric or his employer must rewrite the submission) to CRC for future publication!
Which to me, is an outrage! It is like having to pay to have your own ideas, past and future, to be sold for a profit, but not EVER seeing the fruits of that labor.
Personally, if I was Eric - I would say "Fuck CRC", appologize to the math community - and PULL THE SITE. However, this really hurts all parties involved, because this has been a "labor of love" for Eric, and a valuable resource for the community. So, what could be done?
I haven't had a chance to see how big the site is, but from the stats written, I would imagine it is fairly hefty. He has software in place to keep people from downloading large chunks of it at once. I tend to wonder if there isn't a way to set things up to get the site rewritten, and put on another site, called something else, and then given back to Eric as a gift. I mean, if ten pieces were rewritten by one person, how many people would it take? Could this encyclopedia be folded into one of the "free" encyclopedias out there?
In a way, what I am proposing is kinda something akin to how tax dodgers work - setting up a front company, then disolving and moving the money to another new front company not affiliated with the first (or something to that effect). Could such a thing be done with information? What kind of legal ramifications would there be? If Eric and others rewrite the entire site - is it still the same site, legally? Something tells me yes and no.
CRC needs to be taught a lesson of the power of the internet - the reason it exists. It isn't for money, but for information, and the love and exchange of that information. If it is possible, we can make it happen.
But way out of reach for the average/.'er - these kinds of mods seem to be the only thing happening anymore in "homebrew" VR (and I use the term "homebrew" here in a very loose sense - there is nothing "home" nor "brew" about this mod, other than tweaking the UT software - everything else is closer to the high-end "commercial" realm of things).
Which is very sad, considering today's "state-of-the-art"...
The site I run (see my URL) has a ton of links and info on homebrew VR - but I receive little comment on it. I would love to hear about someone homebrewing a CAVE of their own using a few 100 inch TV projectors, a set of SEGA stereo glasses (or similar), and a PowerGlove. I know it can be done - but nobody is tackling it. If I could ever find the time, I would tackle it myself - but I already have too many projects on back burners (which is why the site hasn't been updated in so long).
Hey,/.'ers! You see this stuff, drool over it, and want it for yourself? BUILD IT! PLEASE! It can be done, and cheaply - hell, a cheesy TORUS-style screen CAVE could be done using all off-the-shelf equipment for under $2500 (including projector!) - it could be done cheaper using homebrew projectors. Or, if your want an HMD, hack a StuntMaster or VFX-1 off Ebay, or build one yourself using cheap LCD TVs from Frys.
For a long time, I have expected an "explosion" in homebrew VR - a lot of people "oohhh and ahhh" over it whenever demos like this are shown, but everyone seems to think it is impossible to play with anymore - that you have to have big $$$ to do anything - UNTRUE! REND386 and AVRIL were born out of this falacy, and used modest and cheap hardware of the time to do a whole heck of a bunch - PCVR (the magazine) was born, and for a while, it seemed like VR was the next "thing" - then the bottom seemed to fall out, the internet became "big" and VR has been nearly forgotten...
Not really, because of the fact that such software could open other outbound ports, and if the firewall blocks those ports, it would be stopped, and logged (provided the firewall "rules" were set to a paranoid enough level).
The really interesting part is that the interference pattern persists even down to the point you are shooting single photons through the slits, as long as you can't tell which slit the photon is going through, but once you can tell, the pattern breaks down and you get just a single blur.
That is, it is an interference pattern as long as the photons are 'allowed' to act as waves, as soon as you try to treat them as particles, they behave as particles.
You are attempting to explain the "Wave/Particle Duality" nature of quanta. A very good explanation is located here.
From the sound of the experiment, it looks like they use a "quanta source", rather than a photon source (does such a thing exist? Doesn't sound impossible...) - in such case, an electron gun emitting a very low discharge...
I think that is all correct - of course, I am as far from a quantum physicist as can be - correct me if I am wrong...
This sounds like a great product. I don't understand the people here who disparage it because you have to pay for it - there is nothing that says you can't run payware alongside (or on top of, as the case may be) open source and *gasp* GPL'd software. Don't come down on it because it isn't "free" or Free.
Personally, I don't have a real need for this product, so I won't be buying it - I really don't ever see many QT trailers or whatnot to justify it, and all the Shockwave stuff can go out the window as well - give me quality content and information, I say.
I would much rather see the development of an open source video codec on par with Sorensen, and have it become well developed and widely used, but I tend to doubt such will happen, as so much of the tech involved in such an endevor is locked up in patents.
My main concern about such software (like this plugin) is that related to security - whether any exploits could be run against it to gain root access, or something. I tend to doubt this, and if you are running as a user, and you have a good firewall you should be mostly protected - but it is something I always have in the back of my mind...
From what I understand, in a gas/electric hybrid, the gas engine drives the electric motor, and also charges batteries in some way. Braking is done via regenerative means to recover energy during braking.
One thing I wonder about is whether a hybrid would benefit from using the gas engine to bring the car up to speed, then using the electric motor to stay at cruising speed. In other words, the gas engine would directly drive the wheels (and the motor, which could act as a generator during this time to charge the batteries a bit as well), then at a certain speed would disengage via a clutch, allowing the motor to take over. The engine could run at a relatively low speed, just enough to get going, and perhaps shut down once up to speed and the electric has taken over. It could start up again when a full stop is reached.
A lot of current (and thus a lot of the energy used) is drawn by a motor going from a dead stop to running speed - but the running current is generally a lot less. Would a system like I described work, be practical, save anything? Has it already been done (I would almost have to believe it has)...?
1. Programmer comes up with new system in spare time while learning a language. New system, if polished, would actually make a nice application to sell to current clients. Programmer is excited, and shows "product" to highers-ups. 2. Higher-ups are excited, can see it may take a bit more work, and look into what it would take to get it to market. They tell sales and marketing to go see the programmer to have him demo it to them. 3. Programmer is excited, shows it to sales and marketing. Sales and marketing love it. 4. Months pass. Unbeknownst to the programmer, sales and marketing have sold it to a client, as part of the contract, to be a finished package by the end of the year - OR ELSE. 5. More months pass - higher ups finally tell programmer, and others, that this new system is wanted - and oh, BTW, it is wanted in Java - not in the VB it was shown it. 6. Three months are left to complete the project. Original programmer knows little Java. Other Java coders know little Swing. Architecture of app is changed from a simple app to a three-tier client-server system. Only two other coders have sufficient Java experience to code on it. The lead of the project knows no Java, and only takes notes at meetings. 7. Twenty-one days until deadline (ie, it has to be in QA in 21 days) - everyone sweating bullets knowing it can't be done. Oh, and BTW, at every meeting it seems like a new section not planned for is realized...
It was an ad-hoc system, and it is progressing as an ad-hoc system - a system that should have NEVER been shown to marketing and sales. I am not the programmer who originated it, but suffice to say it is a system that will be nice for our clients once it is completed. Fortunately, it sounds like things will be able to be smoothed over if we miss the deadline...
So remember, all you budding coders out there - if you create something in your "learning" time - don't show it to anyone BUT other coders. If marketing and sales come around, have them sign an NDA promising not to sell it or something - you don't want to release a product to market before it is done - quit "selling" vaporware!!!
I love laptops with trackballs - unfortunately you can't find them anymore, for some dumbass reason. My current laptop (and favorite, despite it being old and slow) is my Zenith Z-NoteFlex - uses standard SoDIMM's, and it has a trackball - unfortunately it is only a 486 DX2/50...
Anyhow, I understand the reason they don't put in TBs anymore is because of dirt, which is a reasonable position for an all mechanical trackball. However, I don't see why they can't incorporate an optical trackball (kinda like that logitech device, that has the funky pattern on the trackball), and thus cleaning would be easy as popping the ball out, wiping it off, wiping off the sensor, and that's it! I bet I know why they don't do it, though...
I have no way of proving this, so it is my own speculation - but what are the chances that logitech's patent covers any kind of optical sensing trackball? Hmm...
Yeah, I realize that. I will probably go to a regulator at a later time. For now, this is working - I am sure there will be a sag in voltage if I add something else, but until then, there is no reason to really fix it. It has worked so far now for almost six months (I think - it has been there so long, I have forgotton when I installed it).
It seemed like I had a ton of things running on DC power adaptors - ZIP drive, scanner, phone, KVM switcher, fan for my monitor (yeah, it gets pretty damn hot) - so I decided to see what a solution would be. I first looked at my power requirements:
Ok, so what I needed was something that would supply at least 12VDC, at least 2 Amps worth - if I could get 5VDC at an Amp or so, that would be cool, too. So, I started looking.
Here in Phoenix we have a place downtown called Apache Reclamation - as many of you know, this is a favorite place of mine - anyhow, one day I was there, I managed to find the near perfect power supply - It was some kind of Sun workstation switching power supply, and it had 12VDC and 5VDC outputs, several amps each, plus a couple of funky pigtails, which I reasoned were for LEDs or something, or extra 5V outputs, and a regular pigtail with standard colored wires.
Then, I thought to myself "How am I going to distribute the power?" - I needed a bus of some sort - a power bus, but how to make it. Well, ladies and gents - they make these things called bus strips - which are made of plastic, or in high power applications, ceramic - that have metal strips with screws on them to hook wires or metal strips to. So, Apache had a few of them, so I bought them, and also bought some yellow, red and black 12 gauge hookup wire.
At home, I mounted the bus strips (about four of them) to the bottom of my desk (a folding table), then I ran, from screw to screw on each of the bus strips, a yellow, a red, and a black wire. The yellow would be my 12VDC bus, red would be 5VDC, and black would be ground. Then, on one end of the bus I hooked up the power supply I had found (and before I hooked it up, checked that it worked, found the proper wires for 12VDC, 5VDC, and ground), screwed it to the bottom of the desk, and also hooked up an LED (to one of those smaller independant pigtails) to indicate power (which I then mounted into a hole I drilled into the metal strip that runs around the edge of the table).
Now, you may be screaming to yourself "But you don't have all the voltages coming out of that power supply!" - to which I say "Rubbish!"...
I have 12VDC, and 5VDC - and if I use the 5VDC as a "ground" (kinda like OC'ers do for fans), I also have a source of 7VDC!
Now, my toys that need 5 and 12VDC are taken care of. The scanner? It needed 15VDC - but I tried it with 12, and it works fine, your mileage may vary. For the KVM switcher that needed 9 volts, I tried using the 7 volt level, which almost worked, but not well enough, so I took the 12VDC line, dropped a variable resistor on in a voltage adjustment (not rheostat) config, measured with the DVM for the proper voltage (a little over 9VDC), then tried it - it worked fine. I let it run for a while, then felt it for heat - not too big a deal, ran cool. I could have also dropped the voltage to 9 volts over a few diodes as well, or if I wanted to be really cool - use a variable regulator circuit. But this particular device didn't need it.
That's it! No more wall warts, and I got back needed sockets for other things. It was cheap - total cost of parts was like $15.00, plus a little labor. Heck, use an old AT power supply, and you might have the rest in a junk box, and save a bit more money.
I know this won't help the guy who travels - but maybe he can build a mini version, using a smaller power supply (they make some quite small ones - check out www.allelectronics.com), some wire, and some custom connectors...
Think about it - are you sure it is really necessary to have a computer on the tractor? I am certain it can be done, but is there really anything done while in the tractor that couldn't wait until the end of the day?
What I am thinking about is a hands free system - something like a compact flash based MP3 voice recorder with a directional mike headset. Speak what you see, or what you need to do later, then at the end of the day, transfer the notes to the main computer. Such a system would be cheap, durable, and reliable, and wouldn't take your focus off the task at hand (which should be driving the tractor, unless you have one of those fancy GPS/automated tractors - which if you did, why are you asking about such a thing here?).
Not everything needs to be solved with a computer right in front of you, especially when you consider the needs and issues at hand...
Slashdot Mirror
The word "tweens" has been around for a few years...
Now, Tolkien notwithstanding (in which he was arguably the first person to use the word, to describe what could be called "twenty-somethings"), in marketing-speak, tweens are those people who are not quite "teens" - ie, 10, 11, and 12 year olds (get it? TWelve/tEEN/TWEEN? Or, in beTWEEN childhood and teenagers).
This "modern" usage of the word first came about sometime in the early 1990's.
But yeah, you are right - it is a crap word.
Please don't mod down though, I am sure others here probably have the same question!
/24's, /30's - and definitions of classes (A, B, C, etc), as well as what it means when you see like an IP followed by a /nn (like, oh, 27.141.102.18/24 or similar).
Can you explain (or better, point me to a source explaining) what is meant in networking terminology when you say
This is something I have been curious about for a long time, and would like to learn more (whether it would be useful to me or not).
Thank you for any help you or others can provide...
I have to say that one of my pastimes is collecting computer history - not just books on the history, but a little of the history itself. My favorite books are those I have which, when read, are contemporary accounts of "state-of-the-art" computer systems - and which give super-in-depth treatment to exactly how mercury delay lines, drum storage, and core memory works. I have a few punched cards, and some other strange devices (pixie tubes, etc).
However, I always look for information on Babbage - so it surprised me the other day to be browsing at a local Bookstar and seeing this book - I had to have it, as my collection is "sparse" when it comes to Babbage (there really isn't much out there about his machines, at least in paper form - Fourmilab is actually the best resource online). A quick thumbing through told me this was a book worth getting. It was actually kinda strange finding that book, because I also managed to stumble upon the only copy they had of Leonardo's Notebooks Volume 1 (I already had Volume 2), which is all of his treatises about art and the human form. Anyhow, I purchased the Babbage book and started reading it last night.
But have you ever given thought to what it would take to build a mechanical calculating machine? It is really quite a complex task. Even if you had a machine shop, it would be a daunting endevour. I have always wondered if it were possible to build such a machine using Lego. I have never really taken the idea past the conceptual stage. I know about the (MIT?) tinkertoy based tic-tac-toe "computer" - so building a computer from a toy system is feasible, in some manner. Lego seems perfectly suited.
I only know of one individual who has managed to go from concept to at least partial reality, using Lego:
Lego Computing
More images (these are better)
I have had email conversations with this individual, and have gained a little insight into how he is doing things - but it has been a long while since I have emailed him - so I don't know if he has gotten any further, or what. He seems to have some idea of what it would take, though.
Does anyone know of any other similar construction efforts?
Also, if anyone cares - on themes.org I have a Babbage "tribute" wallpaper...
I still dig on AIBO, but until it is smart enough to home in on its base station and recharge itself when its batteries are running low, it's hard to consider AIBO ready for prime time.
First off, get off your duff and decide to build your robot "pet", instead of buying one. While you may or may not have the skills needed, they can be learned and developed. After you have built your robot "pet", and actually see it working - you will know true joy at seeing something you built actually doing things - perhaps even things that make it seem "pet-like".
But where to start?
You could start with familiar books on the shelf at a local Bookstar or Amazon, such as The Robot Builder's Bonanza: 99 Inexpensive Robotics Projects by Gordon McComb (ISBN 0-07-136296-7). However, while I strongly reccommend this book, it focuses more on the mechanical side of things (which _is_ important), but not the software/logic side, which for behavioral systems, will be very important (otherwise it just becomes a programmed or r/c car with a "robot" look). So what should one do?
If you want to build a real robotic pet, here are the books you should have in your library of robotic books (among others, of course):
The David L. Heiserman "Series":
Build Your Own Working Robot (Hardbound: ISBN 0-8306-6841-1 - Softbound: ISBN 0-8306-5841-6), TAB Book 841
How to Build Your Own Self-Programming Robot (Hardbound: ISBN 0-8306-9760-8 - Softbound: ISBN 0-8306-1241-6), TAB Book 1241
Robot Intelligence (with experiments) (Hardbound: ISBN 0-8306-9685-7 - Softbound: ISBN 0-8306-1191-6), TAB Book 1191
Though looong out of print, these three volumes are essential, and should be read in the order given, as they build upon one another. The final book in the series picks up where the prior one left off, but goes in the direction of software based "virtual" robots - an early form of virtual artificial life, if you will. However, it is clearly seen that the author intended the reader to apply these programs toward the robot designed and built in the prior book - and thus take them from the virtual to the "real".
Another book worth exploring is called "How to Build Your Own Working Robot Pet" by Frank DaCosta (TAB Book 1141 - sorry, no ISBN, my copy is shipping currently) - also long out of print. From what I remember in the edition I read, it details how to build a small robot with very definite pet-like qualities (whereas Heiserman focused on what he termed "Evolutionary Adaptive Machine Intelligence" or EAMI for short). I am not sure if there was any contact between Heiserman and DaCosta, but both of their books, and a host of others (notably ones by Edward L. Safford) were published around the same time frame by TAB Books. All of the devices described by DaCosta and Heiserman had the capability (depending on your skills) of auto-recharging themselves when their batteries got low (indeed, Heiserman believed such capability was a paramount thing for an autonomous system, and went into great detail on the design of the system and the "coding" and logic for it).
What is most amazing about all of these authors was the time when they were doing this, which was the late 1970's through early 1980's. Such robotic experimentation peaked at around the mid-1980's, then for unknown reasons, went underground. Hobby robotics is now starting to pick up again with a new generation, but the newcomers seem to have lost the "history" behind their experimentations.
These old hobby robot experiments still have great value for experimentors today. Read the books I have outlined above, and apply the principles (I would not suggest anyone to apply the exact methods used in building the original robots - as it just wouldn't be cost effective anymore - both of the first two Heiserman books effectively detailed building small computer systems, the first nearly entirely logic based, with a very Brooks-like subsumptive architecture, long before Brooks - and the second a true 8-bit computer system, using Intel's 8085 CPU!). However, these principles could easily be applied to a BASIC Stamp, or to nearly any other microcontroller - or you could go a step further and use an on-board laptop motherboard or similar.
These are the books I would recommend - apply the "old-school" knowledge of Heiserman, DaCosta, and if you want, Safford - and meld it with a little of Brooks and McComb - imagine the possibilities!
Finally, while you are at it - think of this for me:
Note these older TAB Books - how well laid out they were, how clear the diagrams and details were, the way everything is described, as well as the graphic art. Then take another look at today's so-called "technical" books: hardly will you find an equivalent. Even a recent look between McComb's first and second edition of his "Robot Builder's Bonanza" (I have both) will show you what has occurred - a true loss in quality (the first edition was published by TAB Books, the second by McGrawHill, under some "TAB Electronics" name).
I also want you to think and wonder about where these early robots, and their builders, went - were they relegated to a scrap yard (the robots, not the builders)? Do their builders still own them? Are they in a museum some where?
I seriously wonder about these things - I have a ton of old robot books from the early 1970's to the mid-1980's describing these robots, and there is hardly any information about where they ended up at! History lost! Both hobbiest and commercial ventures seem gone to history (I tend to wonder, on the commercial end, what happened to the Mosher/GE Hardiman "suit", as well as Odetics, Inc's ODEX-1?). Tod Lofburow's (sp?) KIM-1 based triangular hobby robot (which he described in another TAB book, if you want to look it up). I remember in another book a fascinating picture of a six-foot tall humanoid appearing robot named C.H.A.R.L.I.E., who was named after the builder, but the acronym stood for something, which wasn't detailed in the book, as the book was less of a technical book, and more of a "coffee table"-type book - where did this robot end up at? Are all of these devices collecting dust? Will they end up on Ebay?
Please - if anyone has ANY answers, I would most appreciate them...
I can understand your point - here in Phoenix we had them at an "Ozone" center (that was the name of the place) that charged $5.00 a game (and other tiers) - they moved between different malls, and at the last mall they were at (that I know of, which was Superstition Springs mall), they had the 2000 series.
Keep trying to aquire them - just don't expect the owner to "give" them to you - even a used 1000 model goes for around $5000.00 (when they were sold new, they went for about $25,000.00). If the owner doesn't know the value of them, you might be able to go as low as $3000.00 - but it would be tough.
I thought about buying one of those used systems once - but as I gave it more thought, I realized that instead of spending all that money on something like that, I could probably build the system myself using parts I had, plus parts I could buy - it just wasn't cost effective to buy it ready made. But if you want it to try to make a buck off of (I thought about going to swap meets, etc), that is a possibility...
I have given thought to this - it is feasible to homebrew such a system (and if anyone does, let me know about it - I would love to see pics!).
/dev/cdrom or something.
Basically, for an easy to build system, you want the CD-ROM or RW drive to travel vertically - so you set up some kind of elevator/trolly system, controlled by a stepper motor, along with some kind of pulse sensor (optical encoder) along the track the drive is travelling on so you know how far up or down the track you are. Opposite the CD drive track, you need to have some kind of disk holding system, which will hold the disks horizontally.
Now, all you do is raise the drive to the proper spot just below the disk, eject the tray, lift the disk up, then "inject" the tray. Perform your operations (reading/writing), then eject the disk, drop down a bit (to mount the disk back in its holding "slot"), then "inject" the tray and move to the next selected disk.
For this to work, you would have to modify the tray to look kinda like a forklift - by cutting away (break out the Dremel!) the front center portion of the tray.
Issues you will run into: 1) Weight of CD drive - remove as much of the covering as possible - this will eliminate a ton of weight. 2) Cable length - you may have to use SCSI for this to have any hope of working - it would probably be better to use one of those ultra small motherboards, and mount it to the drive and have it travel with the drive. 3) Control - you will probably have to create a custom control system hooked up to the parallel port or similar to drive the thing. 4) Software - oh, yeah - that part: if done right, this thing could be running linux and almost be like a funky samba server or ftp server - send a command to get a certain disk, and that disk would be mounted as
Regarding CD binder pages - these can be pretty cheap - go down to office max or staples, and buy several packs of these, and a few cheap binders. Keep liner notes/manuals in one binder, CDs in the others. Most of the time you won't need the liner notes, but when you do, they'll be handy.
When I first saw Forte (and prior to that, NetBeans) - I knew there was something good there. The main reason I like it: It make Java almost as easy to code in as VB.
Drag and Drop controls, property settings, code linking - very, very easy - and Java! Don't get me wrong, I know how to code Java using a text editor, etc (NEdit is my favorite) - but it is a bitch to do Swing "by hand" - Forte takes the pain away (for the most part - some of the more custom stuff you still have to do by hand, and it has its glitches - but it still beats hand coding to whip out a quick app).
What I hate about Forte: It is a resource intense HAWG!!! In order to be able to use it at all, you need at least a 300-350 MHz machine, and at least 256 MB of RAM - the faster you go and the more memory, the better it is (my first experience with Forte was on a P200pro w/ 64 MB RAM - don't try it unless you like watching your disk grind away)...
Not anymore - whoa - popup hell on a porn site - ack!
WARNING - DON'T GO TO THAT LINK!!!
Yes, there used to be a freebuilder IDE - I know, I was on a dev list at one time - but where it is at now, who knows...
It sounds like you are basing the entire idea that "VR is dead" because you don't like the Virtuality 1000 (which is what you pictured)...?
To be honest, the Virtuality 1000 wasn't a superb piece of machinery, but at the time, it was the lowest cost, best made solution for VR entertainment.
Was the HMD big and heavy? Yes. Was the HMD low-res? Yes. Was there "lag"? Yes.
But if you played properly, and "looked past" the pixels (instead of what too many people did, which was to focus on the pixels) - there was a whole 'nother world in that box...
The Virtuality 1000's HMD (the Visette) was actually a very nice HMD - its folded optics design allowed for a relatively wide FOV with full focus adjustment (so that if you wore glasses, you could still use it). It provided nearly full immersion. The 1000 was also based on a souped up (OC'd?) Amiga 3000, with a ton of custom processing boards for graphics and sound, as well as 3D tracking (you could, for instance, actually duck and croutch as you played).
Dactyl Nightmare was the "premier" game for the 1000 - a funky form of paintball where not only you shot at other players on this strange "floating" game arena, but you had to watch out for (and/or kill!) a flying pterodactyl that would grab you and drop you to your death!
Anyhow, you can't base your whole opinion on that one system - did you ever play the Virtuality 2000 system? Much lighter equipment, much lighter and higher-res HMD - great equipment.
I have yet to try out Cybermind's (which is who W Industries/Virtuality became) new systems - I hope to next time I visit Vegas - but I have no doubt that they will be great machines.
Just far, far underground...
Check out my URL - I am one of the "underground" sites (though I haven't had much time to do anything lately) - there are others out there.
Cybermind are the rebadged form of W Industries - and seem to still be a big player in the commercial entertainment uses of VR (mostly in Europe and some parts of the US).
Other areas VR is being used in is commercial and academic research - mostly CAVE-style setups. NASA helped start up (via a grant) Flogiston, which sells the "flostation", with an interest in using it to train astronauts. The DOD has their "Dismounted Soldier" training project (a good site is Rudy Darken's site, but it appears to be having problems).
One thing I desperately want to do is republish, in CD form, the entire PCVR magazine archive (of what I have - which is all of the back issues, and a bit of the software that came on floppy). I have tried to contact the original publisher through numerous leads, but no luck (his name is Joeseph Gradecki - if anyone knows of his whereabouts, please contact me). I tend to wonder what the response would be if I did something like this. I figure it would at the minimum help the homebrew VR community (what little is left of it).
And most of it is used!? What the hell do you have on those machines - a ton of MP3s and porn?
Seriously - I couldn't care less what you had, but you need to ask some serious questions here. You talk about four computers with 300 gig of storage, so that is around an 80 gig drive per machine. What you first need to do is consolidate and eliminate duplicate material - ie, build a fileserver, and eliminate redundant data.
How many of those MP3s are kept local on each machine, as copies, etc - when there should only be one copy? Same with those mpegs and jpegs, and any other kind of data.
When and where possible, drop as much of that data to CDs, and remove it off the hard drives - in fact, if I was in your position, I would build a machine with four of those 80 gig drives, then drop small 8 gig drives in each local machine. Partition that 8 gig drive into a 2 gig system partition a four gig application partition, and a 2 gig data partition. Give each user space as well on the fileserver. Put all the MP3s on the fileserver, and hook everyone and the fileserver up through a 100Mb switch. Also, each user can backup their data on their data partition to whatever medium suits them (to the fileserver, to a floppy, to a CD - whatever suits the amount of data they have), and forget the rest (in the event of a real problem, it can be reinstalled from the original disks, or from a backup on the fileserver).
You may also want to partition the fileserver, depending on the type of data being stored (or simply keep certain data on certain drives). Then, decide what is important, and what isn't (is an MP3 important - or is that 300 page dissertation important), and backup the important stuff to CD. Perhaps build a second machine to act as a "mirror" of some sort.
None of these suggestions should substitute for a real backup solution - so you can only do what you can with the money and stuff you have. But there is a way to keep most of what you have safe enough...
Agreed - PowerGloves are not what they are all cracked up to be, but they are easy to hack for a PC. Your comments and ideas are all valid (in fact, look around my site, and you will find an old "issue" of an online "zine" I wrote for VR called "Cheap VR" - issue 2 deals with building your own homemade glove and wireless tracker.
The issue of tactile feedback is an appropriate issue, which is something I have considered. Using an object to represent what you are using or navigating with can be more "intuitive" and understandable. I suppose that is why there is a prevalance of "wand" type devices used in CAVES. One thing I have thought about playing with is this small "off-table" trackball, that you fit one finger through trigger style, and the other goes around the front - there is a trigger button, and two front buttons. The thumb controls the trackball - this would allow navigation as well as manipulation in a 3D environment. Coupled with a chorded keyboard, it could be a useful system.
What I was meaning by cheap LCD TV's, are the portable ones, you know - like the small 1 and 2 inch Casio and Sony portables - it used to cost (back in the PCVR days) around $200.00 for one of these things - something that would then need to be taken apart, and good luck if you screwed up.
/.'ers know about them, and have one close by. If it was me, I would look into portable TVs online or something.
Today, such TV's can be had for well under $100.00 - I saw at Fry's one day a whole end-cap full being sold for $80.00 each - much more cost effective.
Now, personally, I don't really like Fry's - they screwed with me one too many times. But, to each his own - I mentioned them because a lot of
You are right about the geometry aspect of a CAVE - I wasn't trying to invalidate this individual's work or anything - I was just bemoaning the fact that people look at this, and think wow! I want that - but then never realize that it is possible to do something like it on the cheap - it is almost like the early 90's never happened (in regard to homebrew VR, REND386, and the like).
If everyone playing was using a similar setup, we would have a virtual form of paintball, in a way. That, and if nobody would cheat (something I hate about online and network play - it seems like everyone and their brother uses cheats and bots, rather than relying on true skill - and to make things worse, those with true skill invariably get accused of cheating! Why not a little honesty, for f--k's sake?)...
But FPS's are one thing - and even if it were done, it would be nice to see it done homebrew style, even if it didn't help, and perhaps hindered (due to the reasons you specify). I would just simply love to see a complete homebrew VR CAVE setup, or similar (heh, it would be fun to see a homebrew version of Dactyl Nightmare, using PCs, hacked powergloves, hacked stuntmasters, etc - man, what I would give to play that game again)...
Anyhow, that is how I see it - there are a lot of applications for VR, and not much has been explored in the homebrew arena...
I am not a mathematician, and thus probably have very little use for this individual's collection of knowledge. Still, I can recognize it as being a valid and valuable resource to those that are mathematicians, or who are studying math. Even though I am neither, I suppose there may even come I time where I might want to use this resource.
Reading Eric's Commentary about what happened to MathWorld - I can't help but think that in then end, he and his employer got screwed - and HARD. As part of the agreement between them and CRC, they have to continue to pay, and to allow other's information passed on, in one form or another (either original form in which the author agrees to CRC's boilerplate agreement, or in a rewritten form, which Eric or his employer must rewrite the submission) to CRC for future publication!
Which to me, is an outrage! It is like having to pay to have your own ideas, past and future, to be sold for a profit, but not EVER seeing the fruits of that labor.
Personally, if I was Eric - I would say "Fuck CRC", appologize to the math community - and PULL THE SITE. However, this really hurts all parties involved, because this has been a "labor of love" for Eric, and a valuable resource for the community. So, what could be done?
I haven't had a chance to see how big the site is, but from the stats written, I would imagine it is fairly hefty. He has software in place to keep people from downloading large chunks of it at once. I tend to wonder if there isn't a way to set things up to get the site rewritten, and put on another site, called something else, and then given back to Eric as a gift. I mean, if ten pieces were rewritten by one person, how many people would it take? Could this encyclopedia be folded into one of the "free" encyclopedias out there?
In a way, what I am proposing is kinda something akin to how tax dodgers work - setting up a front company, then disolving and moving the money to another new front company not affiliated with the first (or something to that effect). Could such a thing be done with information? What kind of legal ramifications would there be? If Eric and others rewrite the entire site - is it still the same site, legally? Something tells me yes and no.
CRC needs to be taught a lesson of the power of the internet - the reason it exists. It isn't for money, but for information, and the love and exchange of that information. If it is possible, we can make it happen.
But way out of reach for the average /.'er - these kinds of mods seem to be the only thing happening anymore in "homebrew" VR (and I use the term "homebrew" here in a very loose sense - there is nothing "home" nor "brew" about this mod, other than tweaking the UT software - everything else is closer to the high-end "commercial" realm of things).
/.'ers! You see this stuff, drool over it, and want it for yourself? BUILD IT! PLEASE! It can be done, and cheaply - hell, a cheesy TORUS-style screen CAVE could be done using all off-the-shelf equipment for under $2500 (including projector!) - it could be done cheaper using homebrew projectors. Or, if your want an HMD, hack a StuntMaster or VFX-1 off Ebay, or build one yourself using cheap LCD TVs from Frys.
Which is very sad, considering today's "state-of-the-art"...
The site I run (see my URL) has a ton of links and info on homebrew VR - but I receive little comment on it. I would love to hear about someone homebrewing a CAVE of their own using a few 100 inch TV projectors, a set of SEGA stereo glasses (or similar), and a PowerGlove. I know it can be done - but nobody is tackling it. If I could ever find the time, I would tackle it myself - but I already have too many projects on back burners (which is why the site hasn't been updated in so long).
Hey,
For a long time, I have expected an "explosion" in homebrew VR - a lot of people "oohhh and ahhh" over it whenever demos like this are shown, but everyone seems to think it is impossible to play with anymore - that you have to have big $$$ to do anything - UNTRUE! REND386 and AVRIL were born out of this falacy, and used modest and cheap hardware of the time to do a whole heck of a bunch - PCVR (the magazine) was born, and for a while, it seemed like VR was the next "thing" - then the bottom seemed to fall out, the internet became "big" and VR has been nearly forgotten...
Sad...
Not really, because of the fact that such software could open other outbound ports, and if the firewall blocks those ports, it would be stopped, and logged (provided the firewall "rules" were set to a paranoid enough level).
The really interesting part is that the interference pattern persists even down to the point you are shooting single photons through the slits, as long as you can't tell which slit the photon is going through, but once you can tell, the pattern breaks down and you get just a single blur.
That is, it is an interference pattern as long as the photons are 'allowed' to act as waves, as soon as you try to treat them as particles, they behave as particles.
You are attempting to explain the "Wave/Particle Duality" nature of quanta. A very good explanation is located here.
From the sound of the experiment, it looks like they use a "quanta source", rather than a photon source (does such a thing exist? Doesn't sound impossible...) - in such case, an electron gun emitting a very low discharge...
I think that is all correct - of course, I am as far from a quantum physicist as can be - correct me if I am wrong...
This sounds like a great product. I don't understand the people here who disparage it because you have to pay for it - there is nothing that says you can't run payware alongside (or on top of, as the case may be) open source and *gasp* GPL'd software. Don't come down on it because it isn't "free" or Free.
Personally, I don't have a real need for this product, so I won't be buying it - I really don't ever see many QT trailers or whatnot to justify it, and all the Shockwave stuff can go out the window as well - give me quality content and information, I say.
I would much rather see the development of an open source video codec on par with Sorensen, and have it become well developed and widely used, but I tend to doubt such will happen, as so much of the tech involved in such an endevor is locked up in patents.
My main concern about such software (like this plugin) is that related to security - whether any exploits could be run against it to gain root access, or something. I tend to doubt this, and if you are running as a user, and you have a good firewall you should be mostly protected - but it is something I always have in the back of my mind...
From what I understand, in a gas/electric hybrid, the gas engine drives the electric motor, and also charges batteries in some way. Braking is done via regenerative means to recover energy during braking.
One thing I wonder about is whether a hybrid would benefit from using the gas engine to bring the car up to speed, then using the electric motor to stay at cruising speed. In other words, the gas engine would directly drive the wheels (and the motor, which could act as a generator during this time to charge the batteries a bit as well), then at a certain speed would disengage via a clutch, allowing the motor to take over. The engine could run at a relatively low speed, just enough to get going, and perhaps shut down once up to speed and the electric has taken over. It could start up again when a full stop is reached.
A lot of current (and thus a lot of the energy used) is drawn by a motor going from a dead stop to running speed - but the running current is generally a lot less. Would a system like I described work, be practical, save anything? Has it already been done (I would almost have to believe it has)...?
"Suffering" from it right now, AAMOF...
1. Programmer comes up with new system in spare time while learning a language. New system, if polished, would actually make a nice application to sell to current clients. Programmer is excited, and shows "product" to highers-ups.
2. Higher-ups are excited, can see it may take a bit more work, and look into what it would take to get it to market. They tell sales and marketing to go see the programmer to have him demo it to them.
3. Programmer is excited, shows it to sales and marketing. Sales and marketing love it.
4. Months pass. Unbeknownst to the programmer, sales and marketing have sold it to a client, as part of the contract, to be a finished package by the end of the year - OR ELSE.
5. More months pass - higher ups finally tell programmer, and others, that this new system is wanted - and oh, BTW, it is wanted in Java - not in the VB it was shown it.
6. Three months are left to complete the project. Original programmer knows little Java. Other Java coders know little Swing. Architecture of app is changed from a simple app to a three-tier client-server system. Only two other coders have sufficient Java experience to code on it. The lead of the project knows no Java, and only takes notes at meetings.
7. Twenty-one days until deadline (ie, it has to be in QA in 21 days) - everyone sweating bullets knowing it can't be done. Oh, and BTW, at every meeting it seems like a new section not planned for is realized...
It was an ad-hoc system, and it is progressing as an ad-hoc system - a system that should have NEVER been shown to marketing and sales. I am not the programmer who originated it, but suffice to say it is a system that will be nice for our clients once it is completed. Fortunately, it sounds like things will be able to be smoothed over if we miss the deadline...
So remember, all you budding coders out there - if you create something in your "learning" time - don't show it to anyone BUT other coders. If marketing and sales come around, have them sign an NDA promising not to sell it or something - you don't want to release a product to market before it is done - quit "selling" vaporware!!!
I love laptops with trackballs - unfortunately you can't find them anymore, for some dumbass reason. My current laptop (and favorite, despite it being old and slow) is my Zenith Z-NoteFlex - uses standard SoDIMM's, and it has a trackball - unfortunately it is only a 486 DX2/50...
Anyhow, I understand the reason they don't put in TBs anymore is because of dirt, which is a reasonable position for an all mechanical trackball. However, I don't see why they can't incorporate an optical trackball (kinda like that logitech device, that has the funky pattern on the trackball), and thus cleaning would be easy as popping the ball out, wiping it off, wiping off the sensor, and that's it! I bet I know why they don't do it, though...
I have no way of proving this, so it is my own speculation - but what are the chances that logitech's patent covers any kind of optical sensing trackball? Hmm...
Yeah, I realize that. I will probably go to a regulator at a later time. For now, this is working - I am sure there will be a sag in voltage if I add something else, but until then, there is no reason to really fix it. It has worked so far now for almost six months (I think - it has been there so long, I have forgotton when I installed it).
It seemed like I had a ton of things running on DC power adaptors - ZIP drive, scanner, phone, KVM switcher, fan for my monitor (yeah, it gets pretty damn hot) - so I decided to see what a solution would be. I first looked at my power requirements:
1. ZIP Drive - 5VDC, 1 amp
2. Scanner - 15VDC, 1 amp
3. Phone - 12VDC, 300 milliamps
4. KVM Switcher - 9VDC, 600 milliamps
5. Monitor fan - 12VDC, ??? milliamps
Ok, so what I needed was something that would supply at least 12VDC, at least 2 Amps worth - if I could get 5VDC at an Amp or so, that would be cool, too. So, I started looking.
Here in Phoenix we have a place downtown called Apache Reclamation - as many of you know, this is a favorite place of mine - anyhow, one day I was there, I managed to find the near perfect power supply - It was some kind of Sun workstation switching power supply, and it had 12VDC and 5VDC outputs, several amps each, plus a couple of funky pigtails, which I reasoned were for LEDs or something, or extra 5V outputs, and a regular pigtail with standard colored wires.
Then, I thought to myself "How am I going to distribute the power?" - I needed a bus of some sort - a power bus, but how to make it. Well, ladies and gents - they make these things called bus strips - which are made of plastic, or in high power applications, ceramic - that have metal strips with screws on them to hook wires or metal strips to. So, Apache had a few of them, so I bought them, and also bought some yellow, red and black 12 gauge hookup wire.
At home, I mounted the bus strips (about four of them) to the bottom of my desk (a folding table), then I ran, from screw to screw on each of the bus strips, a yellow, a red, and a black wire. The yellow would be my 12VDC bus, red would be 5VDC, and black would be ground. Then, on one end of the bus I hooked up the power supply I had found (and before I hooked it up, checked that it worked, found the proper wires for 12VDC, 5VDC, and ground), screwed it to the bottom of the desk, and also hooked up an LED (to one of those smaller independant pigtails) to indicate power (which I then mounted into a hole I drilled into the metal strip that runs around the edge of the table).
Now, you may be screaming to yourself "But you don't have all the voltages coming out of that power supply!" - to which I say "Rubbish!"...
I have 12VDC, and 5VDC - and if I use the 5VDC as a "ground" (kinda like OC'ers do for fans), I also have a source of 7VDC!
Now, my toys that need 5 and 12VDC are taken care of. The scanner? It needed 15VDC - but I tried it with 12, and it works fine, your mileage may vary. For the KVM switcher that needed 9 volts, I tried using the 7 volt level, which almost worked, but not well enough, so I took the 12VDC line, dropped a variable resistor on in a voltage adjustment (not rheostat) config, measured with the DVM for the proper voltage (a little over 9VDC), then tried it - it worked fine. I let it run for a while, then felt it for heat - not too big a deal, ran cool. I could have also dropped the voltage to 9 volts over a few diodes as well, or if I wanted to be really cool - use a variable regulator circuit. But this particular device didn't need it.
That's it! No more wall warts, and I got back needed sockets for other things. It was cheap - total cost of parts was like $15.00, plus a little labor. Heck, use an old AT power supply, and you might have the rest in a junk box, and save a bit more money.
I know this won't help the guy who travels - but maybe he can build a mini version, using a smaller power supply (they make some quite small ones - check out www.allelectronics.com), some wire, and some custom connectors...
Is what will the computer be used for?
Think about it - are you sure it is really necessary to have a computer on the tractor? I am certain it can be done, but is there really anything done while in the tractor that couldn't wait until the end of the day?
What I am thinking about is a hands free system - something like a compact flash based MP3 voice recorder with a directional mike headset. Speak what you see, or what you need to do later, then at the end of the day, transfer the notes to the main computer. Such a system would be cheap, durable, and reliable, and wouldn't take your focus off the task at hand (which should be driving the tractor, unless you have one of those fancy GPS/automated tractors - which if you did, why are you asking about such a thing here?).
Not everything needs to be solved with a computer right in front of you, especially when you consider the needs and issues at hand...