Now, you may be asking: "But they only come in a few frequencies!!!" - well, do you think that 802.11 comes in more? So, you will probably have to hack up your own networking/collision detection type system. These devices sound perfect for what you are trying to do...
1. For use by one person at a time - check. 2. Uses a video display and keyboard - check (it has a wireless keyboard, and it hooks to your TV or to a SVGA monitor). 3. Contains an Intel x86 compatible microprocessor - check (it uses an AMD 586/133).
I see a few nay-sayers here, regarding the size and the materials used for this construction of da Vinci's bridge. It was originally meant to be of stone, and much bigger. Naysayers discuss that it is made of wood, and the inverse square law of size vs strength.
Now, I am not an engineer - and the arguments made are valid. But I do know a bit about Da Vinci - and the one thing he wasn't is incompetent.
If it was to be made of wood - he would have designed it that way - he knew about composite construction, from designing and building large (and not so large) torsion and bow-based siege engines for various sponsors. Many of his designs were meant to be done in wood, actually - others in stone, and still other in a combinations, which included metals and glass (optics, in that case).
He not only designed, but built large scale machines for boring long lengths of both wood and metal (for water pipes and cannons, respectively). These are large scale constructions and projects - I have no doubt that his full scale construction, as intended in stone, could be realized as he planned.
It is true that he saw farther than most men, and did lapse in areas that were more conjecture than real things that could work (his helicopter and ornithopter designs would likely not work - but they saw far, at the least - his parachute would have been fragile, and wouldn't have worked too well - but it has been built and tested - and it did work better than thought). But most of works are truely the "stuff of legends".
Here we are - 500 years after this man's death - still discussing, still trying out his ideas, ideals, and plans. I think of the sketched self-portrait of his as an old-man - as well as various other images I have seen of him. A powerful, muscular individual. This was a man intent on improving his mind, his body, and the world around him. It has been said that he was strong enough to bend an iron horseshoe with his bare hands - yet gentle enough to not harm an insect. He was supposedly a vegetarian. I have also heard he may have been homosexual.
None of this changes my image of the man - this man is a man to aspire to be like. A true individual who walked on the earth - and made it a better place through art, science, compassion, and dignity.
You know, you are probably right - the one thing I have yet to try is to simply leave the audio input to the speakers unplugged, and see if it still happens.
The crazy thing, is that it isn't "constant" - like a radio station would be - but sporadic - a few seconds of mumbling, then nothing for hours (if anything more at all) - and it doesn't happen at certain times. I have never isolated and determined what the problem really is. I doubt I ever will, as I will probably be moving in six months.
Still, nothing explains the other "events" I have witnessed (creepiest one: I was standing next to my SO as she unloaded the dishwasher - we were talking about some small thing. It was late at night - near the dishwasher is our stove with this funky 70's style range hood. We never used the hood for exhaust, because it was the nastiest thing on the planet (it would take a major steam cleaning to remove all the grease on it - we rent the house). So, we are standing there - when all of a sudden the blower comes on. Now, remember, we never used the unit at all - I reach under the hood, and it isn't turned on by a switch, but rather by a knob based rheostat for speed control, with a switched off position - even at the lowest setting you could hear the fan. It was set at about halfway. So - somehow, the blower turned on, and went to half speed - but we didn't hear the click of the switch, and it wasn't on at all prior when we were talking...)
I swear this is true - I wish I were making it up...
My system is rather set up wierd - I have two tower systems underneath a 6 foot folding table, 19 inch monitor to one side, keyboard, hub, KVM switch, printer, scanner - and various other things.
Now, this setup is out in the middle of the floor - all the wires are laying along the back, in a loose bundle. For power, and my network connection (which goes to a back room in the house), I run the wires up and along the ceiling, then down to the outlets (the wires are bundled in cable split-loom tubing). Anyhow, my speakers are on the wall, up high, each near the corner of the room directly across from me. The sub is down low, all is connected through a garage sale stereo (with tape deck etc - hooked up to allow me to make MP3s of old tapes a friend and I recorded in HS, another story). They are wired together well - using normal connectors - except for the wire between the speakers (one is amped, and drives the other on the other end of the wall) - which is soldered well, of 12 gauge stranded wire.
Anyhow, all this is hooked up to my SuSE Linux system, running ALSA, so I can play my MP3s and whatnot through XMMS. It works well, and has good sound (not the best, but adequate for my needs). Pretty, though - it isn't - rat's nest would be a better word for it.
Anyhow, I am sitting there late one night, just browsing around, doing a little Perl coding, and the like. Not playing any music. Nobody else is in the house, so it is pretty quiet...
I hear a sound - like somebody talking. But in the attic? Or - maybe it is coming from the speakers. I can tell it is a human voice. But I can't understand it. I get closer, wait for it again - there! - but even though I am right next to the speaker, all I can tell is that it is a man's voice - nothing more.
It sorta sounds like speech - but I don't know what it is. Scared the shit out of me the first time it occurred - thought it was in the attic - because our attic is open on the sides (to allow air to blow through - you gotta see this house we rent), and anyone could climb up into the attic if they were inclined enough.
I don't know what it is - but it only comes through when the speakers are on (if everything is unplugged from the computer and stereo - but the speakers are on, it will still happen). I have theorized that it is simply radio interference - except it doesn't sound like a radio broadcast. I have thought it might be walkie-talkies from construction, or CB radio - but this is at night, and while we have construction going on around us, as well as a nearby rock quarry - they are both shut-down at night...
Of course - it doesn't help that both me and my SO have seen some strange shit in the house (doors openning and closing on thier own, appliances, TVs, and lights turning on and off spontaneously, we even have some funky pictures taken last halloween - in that case, there is the "ghost fog" streaked through the image of one of our guests we were taking pics of, but the guest pics taken before and after that guest, in the same spot - do not show the streaks, and it was done with the same camera, not more than a few minutes apart).
I am not making this up - and everyone here knows that I am a pretty rational and intelligent individual, or at least I hope. My rational side says that there is a good explanation for it - and indeed - for most of the things that happen, there is. But some of the things I have seen (as well as some of the things my SO has seen which I hadn't, but I have no reason to doubt her veracity) - let's just say it stretches the mind.
I would also suggest the last King's Quest - while the 3D engine is no where near top notch, the game most certainly follows in the story telling tradition of King's Quest (though the violence level went up), as well as the puzzle solving.
I did an upgrade from a P200 motherboard with 96 meg of 72pin SIMM memory, to a Celeron 366 with 128meg of SDRAM (since then expanded to 768 meg) - and I think the only problem I encountered was with my ZIP drive not working properly due to a funkiness with the parallel port, but that was due to a bios setting, IIRC.
Anyhow, you shouldn't have any problems. As you can see, mine was a pretty radical upgrade (waaay different motherboards, chipsets, RAM, etc), but it was really easy.
Now, you want to know about funky - you should see my hybrid SuSE 6.3/7.2 Personal install/upgrade...
That was a great interview - I have it in my head that Wil Wheaton is this young whiny kid from STNG - but then he says he is 29 - and my gawd! Where did the time go...
I am 28 - and it doesn't seem that long ago that I watched STNG - and I have this image.
Wil, you grew up - and that was your character, anyway - and I always thought of the character as whiny. I know it wasn't your fault.
You have something that many people hardly learn - you know what you are "meant" to do, what you enjoy and are good at: acting. Few learn this, and continue to try different things, and are unsatisfied with all their choices - and tend to wonder why. You seem to understand this. So don't worry about becoming an "ultra-geek" and running Linux - that isn't what you do.
But if you really want to run it, there are plenty of people here willing and able to help you get it going, and most of the fun of Linux is in the challenge of getting it going, rather than the use of it (anyhow, that is how I feel). Also, as a tip - try SuSE 7.2 (or whatever the latest release is) - I have seen die-hard Windows fans install it and marvel at how simple it was to get working (of course, that is an anecdotal story, take it for what it is worth)...
Sounds like you are going for one of the BIDS (https://www.bids.tswg.gov/) projects.
Based on other posts, I would guess your project involves face-rec in an airport. As others have noted, I think your requirements are way too high, even for the app you may have in mind.
Your res is OK, and is probably necessary - no need to change that - but I would drop the greyscale a bit, from 8 bit greyscale to 4-6 bit greyscale. If you went with 6 bit greyscale, you would end up with 230KB/frame - with 4 bit greyscale, it would be 153KB/frame.
Drop the frame rate to 15 frame/s, and you would end up with 3.5 MB/s per camera (6 bit) and 2.3 MB/s (4 bit). Do your vid compression and you would be looking at ~35 KB/s (35 MB/s) and ~23 KB/s (23 MB/s) respectively, or 2-3 TB/day - which is much more reasonable.
Even this can be improved - only record extreme movement - if you are doing face rec, you don't care if one pixel changes, or a few pixels change - even rapidly. But if a whole lot of pixels change, record that. In fact, you could even use a variable frame rate system to up the frame rate recorded, from say 0-1 FPS (little to no movement), up to 30 FPS (lots of movement, subject nearly fills camera FOV). Doing this will probably save a ton off of the bandwidth and storage requirements for the whole system - but this would be difficult to give numbers for without knowing the exact use of the system, camera placement, amount of traffic in camera path, etc. This would have to be known to decide whether to put such a system in place.
If making these changes to the requirements is not acceptable (I have seen a posting claiming you are a guy doing face-rec with an above 80% success rate, but that you need 8 bit greyscale, at 30 FPS) - you may be looking at a near impossible to implement system, without the ability to spend a lot of money for storage and processing needs. Something a government would be willing to do a few times for certain installations, but not something commercially viable, except for extreme economic situations (perhaps casinos and such).
Here is a good site that gives a good reference on what are, and how they work.
The are electric linear actuaters as well, that work on a telescoping lead screw rod type system, as well as solenoid based, and SMA (shape memory alloy) actuators - however, none of these have as fast response times, and waste more power.
Even air muscles aren't perfect, but they are interesting...
That is what I say - if you want it done right, and you want it done Free, build it yourself. Many hobbiests have built many walking and rolling robots - it isn't that hard to build a robot platform, and code it yourself.
The hardware to do this is almost literally lying around - both used and surplus parts, gearmotors, batteries, acrylic sheet - all of it is cheap, cheap, CHEAP!
Hell, I am on a budget right now saving for a house, and I am still able to find enough money to buy cheapo parts for a bot I am building. Those with more cashflow can go further, much further. Don't want to get "dirty"? Buy a Mindstorm kit or two!
Need a computer to control it all? A Basic Stamp is cheap enough, or you can get to the metal with a 16F84 PIC (hell, buy several - they are cheap enough, and a parallel port programmer is easy to build, plus code to convert BASIC to PIC opcodes is freely available on the net). Or, use an old 486 or pentium board - interface to an ISA slot, or hook an 8255A to the parallel port (or, if you don't need more than 20 or so bits of I/O, hook straight to the parallel port - but use hex buffers if you value the port). This stuff is cheap, often free! Want more "hack" value - use a C=64 or Apple IIe motherboard!!
Come on! We don't need Sony - THEY NEED US! Let them and the people that work for them suffer and starve for their corporate short-sightedness. That is the free market (like the market is really free anymore, but I doubt laws could be made to force us to buy from them).
There are probably more links than these. I am not karma whoring, it just didn't seem like anyone posted links to the "sport" of water-rocket building. It is too bad that they limit the size, etc - some water rocket builder/enthusiasts have built 2 and 3 stage rockets, added cameras and other payload packages - sent thier rockets up super high (higher than you would think)...
I have never tried Debian, but it is on my list for "next install" (I currently run SuSE). I figure that by the time I do go to my "next install", that DVDs will be pretty much standard across the board for both OS installs and other software (regardless of OS). It is rapidly going that route.
However, I am a "conciensious (sp?) objector" to the tight fist of the MPAA - buying a DVD drive will give them their "fee", because said drive will most certainly include software for movie playing (though it will be for that other OS), which will have a licence fee attached to it.
If I could just by the drive, and only the drive - then I might consider it - but I still don't know if the MPAA doesn't have their hand still in the cookie jar somewhere.
Do I need to just bite the bullet, and throw my moral and political objections out the window? I don't think I can do that! I suppose I could buy the drive, then donate $50.00 or so to the EFF... I would rather not have any money whatsoever go to the MPAA...
I suppose I could just not buy Debian (or any other distro on DVD) - ideas or suggestions, anybody?
Maybe he will, and maybe he won't - more than likely it is one of those higher end boxes, but - hey, I don't know.
But think of this - decode the MP3s on a beefy server, then stream the resulting PCM - a 486 could easily buffer and play that from the network. There are even tools that allow this under Linux and other *nixs - check my site and go to the Acer NT-150 stb hacking page - there are some links for this...
A few of the people on the mailing list sell them via ebay auctions. These devices aren't off-the-shelf things - they were made by Acer specifically for OEM use - Acer won't even acknowledge much of anything about them. So, the only people who got them were cable companies and a few others. In America, it was N|C (now Liberate), in Europe it was NTL (cable company). Some of the people related to these companies and others have found my list and have helped with the hacking (providing needed info, selling boxes, etc).
So, yeah, they are available, but only sporadically...
Re:So, how long until....
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Actually - that isn't a bad idea - back during the 80's, when everyone and his brother was competing with Atari (it seemed), a lot of small pong systems were developed. In fact, at one time there was a "pong-on-a-chip" made (forget which manufacturer) that required very few external parts. Your idea, in fact, would not be unfeasible - and if built, I bet, would instantly be a "classic hack", at least with the/. crowd...
I have been "running" a group for a while now (almost a year old) dedicated to the task of hacking the Acer NT-150 set-top box - this box was intended for an actual service that never made it during the.com era - a lot of people have put a lot of work into getting this box to do things it wasn't meant to do.
Go to my site, follow the links, and see what has been happenning (actually, the mailing list archive is the most useful and up-to-date - I haven't had a lot of time to update the site for a while, but the majority of stuff is there as well).
While not an "MP3" playing powerhouse, there has been a ton of hack value...
I have this sense of feeling like this "war" is like the "wars" described in Orwell's 1984 - it is a background thing, that no one knows much about, but that it is happenning, only because our government and the media say it is happenning.
I want real information - I want the truth on what is happenning. For all I _really_ know - nothing is happenning - no war, no anthrax - other than the WTC collapse, nothing else has verifiable impartial 3rd party support. Maybe the anthrax stuff does - but I already know that I should fear it less than getting in my car to drive to work.
But the war? No info, every day - it seemed immediately after the attack on the WTC, the news was bustling - new stories every day - stories of horror and hope. A week later, the shutdown began.
Now, nothing new really happens - or so it seems. I think if this sense of "nothing happening" goes on long enough, the average joe on the street is going to end up not caring about anything that is going on in regards to the "War on Terrorism" - that it will become pure background noise, nobody caring about rights and other crap being trampled upon.
Similar to the "War on (some) Drugs" - today, nobody really cares, and even the news have stopped reporting on it - but it still goes on, every day - I remember in the 80's when it seemed like they were reporting a drive by gang-related drug related shooting every day - now, it still happens - but you never hear about it anymore - people have tuned it out, to the detriment of their rights, among a ton of other stuff.
The same thing is occurring with the current situation, but it seems to be occuring faster - it has been barely a month since the WTC attack - but it feels like years, in a way...
I would have to agree that lying helps. Of course, I have an anecdotal story, that has lies, truths, and other such things in it - but turned out great all the same...
I purchased a Fujix P-401 video projector at a swap meet a while back. I picked it up for $250.00 (this projector is the cheesiest vid projector one can buy - NTSC, size of video tape, 320x200 res - ack - but I wanted something to play with), and the dealer (who dealt in used vid equipment) told me it worked. I got it home, and let it sit for a few weeks - then tried it out. It mostly worked, but half the screen was snowy, right down the middle. I figured it was a bad LCD or driver chip, or a loose connector. What happened next is where the fun began.
I decided first to check it myself, to see if anything obvious was happenning - I tried reseating connectors, etc - no dice. So I figured I would send it in to Fuji...
Now, Fuji hasn't made this projector in about 10 years. So, I didn't think they would do anything for free. But, I had an ace up my sleeve, so to speak: in the packaging that came with the projector, I had the instruction manual, as well as the 1 year warantee card - but not just the warantee card - but the one for me, _and_ the one for the retailer!!! Both were new and _blank_!!! A little searching, and I found that the address had since changed for it to be mailed to. So, I called Fuji up, asked about sending it to the new address - they said fine. So I did.
A few weeks later, I checked back and asked if they had gotten my warantee card - they said yes. I told them about my problem - and they said to send it in, but include a copy of the receipt, and to hell with the warantee info - I thought "Oh crap, they will know that the dealer who sold it to me is not an authorised Fuji dealer!" - but I had put that down on the warantee card, so I figured, "What the hell?" and sent the projector and the copy of the warantee and receipt to them.
I called about a week later after I had confirmed it had arrived at their location, and asked what was happenning. They had gotten it, and would work on it shortly. I called again a few days later - and the person on the phone actually said something about "Fuji not making that projector for a long time" - but didn't go any further with the thought - here she had my warantee, receipt, etc - all in "new" condition - she wondered how I bought it - I played dumb, and, well, it worked...
A couple of weeks later I got the projector back - in perfect condition. They cleaned it, put a new light in, put in a new LCD and driver chip - and it works fine! No charge, nada!!!
Talk about great support!
So, you see - I lied, a bit - but at the same time I was telling the truth. Since the warantee reg was NEVER sent in, or marked in any way - who is to really say I didn't buy it "new" on the day I did - maybe it was hidden in the back of a warehouse somewhere. Fuji could have easily denied me my support, just on the ludicrousness of the whole situation, if someone had thought about it good and hard - but they came through anyway!
I am picking up my jaw...
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Amazing!!! 256 Bytes!!! Humbling, to say the LEAST!!!
People - download this and try it, and be amazed!!! It is.com file, for DOS - but it runs _fine_ under NT!!!
Actually, I have heard that they have 90 days, at which time they have to call back the troops, or formerly declare war. I don't know what the truth or source of this is, though.
One thing that is interesting is that by not declaring war, in theory the US is not bound by the Geneva Convention (I think that is right) - thus all the rules on POW treatment, etc - are out the window for both sides.
I wasn't really disagreeing with the searches, per se, but rather the statement that we are "at War". The public, as well as many people here on/. - actually believe we are at "War", and think "War" has been declared, when it has not.
I do disagree with any violations of American civil rights as protected by our Constitution, in the name of needing to fight this undeclared "war".
All jobs have pros and cons, one of the cons about jobs that affect everyone in general is that when there is a WAR your personal freedoms get a little squashed.
America is not officially at War - Congress has yet to issue a Declaration of War.
Slashdot Mirror
Parallax, Inc sells solutions for what you have in mind.
Now, you may be asking: "But they only come in a few frequencies!!!" - well, do you think that 802.11 comes in more? So, you will probably have to hack up your own networking/collision detection type system. These devices sound perfect for what you are trying to do...
Huh????
This is a truely F-d up definition, if there EVER was one - case in point:
The Acer NT-150 Set-top Box
Let's see:
1. For use by one person at a time - check.
2. Uses a video display and keyboard - check (it has a wireless keyboard, and it hooks to your TV or to a SVGA monitor).
3. Contains an Intel x86 compatible microprocessor - check (it uses an AMD 586/133).
Hey - look! - it's a set-top box, too!!!
What idiot wrote this definition, anyhow?
MONEY.
Fucking bastards.
I see a few nay-sayers here, regarding the size and the materials used for this construction of da Vinci's bridge. It was originally meant to be of stone, and much bigger. Naysayers discuss that it is made of wood, and the inverse square law of size vs strength.
Now, I am not an engineer - and the arguments made are valid. But I do know a bit about Da Vinci - and the one thing he wasn't is incompetent.
If it was to be made of wood - he would have designed it that way - he knew about composite construction, from designing and building large (and not so large) torsion and bow-based siege engines for various sponsors. Many of his designs were meant to be done in wood, actually - others in stone, and still other in a combinations, which included metals and glass (optics, in that case).
He not only designed, but built large scale machines for boring long lengths of both wood and metal (for water pipes and cannons, respectively). These are large scale constructions and projects - I have no doubt that his full scale construction, as intended in stone, could be realized as he planned.
It is true that he saw farther than most men, and did lapse in areas that were more conjecture than real things that could work (his helicopter and ornithopter designs would likely not work - but they saw far, at the least - his parachute would have been fragile, and wouldn't have worked too well - but it has been built and tested - and it did work better than thought). But most of works are truely the "stuff of legends".
Here we are - 500 years after this man's death - still discussing, still trying out his ideas, ideals, and plans. I think of the sketched self-portrait of his as an old-man - as well as various other images I have seen of him. A powerful, muscular individual. This was a man intent on improving his mind, his body, and the world around him. It has been said that he was strong enough to bend an iron horseshoe with his bare hands - yet gentle enough to not harm an insect. He was supposedly a vegetarian. I have also heard he may have been homosexual.
None of this changes my image of the man - this man is a man to aspire to be like. A true individual who walked on the earth - and made it a better place through art, science, compassion, and dignity.
You know, you are probably right - the one thing I have yet to try is to simply leave the audio input to the speakers unplugged, and see if it still happens.
The crazy thing, is that it isn't "constant" - like a radio station would be - but sporadic - a few seconds of mumbling, then nothing for hours (if anything more at all) - and it doesn't happen at certain times. I have never isolated and determined what the problem really is. I doubt I ever will, as I will probably be moving in six months.
Still, nothing explains the other "events" I have witnessed (creepiest one: I was standing next to my SO as she unloaded the dishwasher - we were talking about some small thing. It was late at night - near the dishwasher is our stove with this funky 70's style range hood. We never used the hood for exhaust, because it was the nastiest thing on the planet (it would take a major steam cleaning to remove all the grease on it - we rent the house). So, we are standing there - when all of a sudden the blower comes on. Now, remember, we never used the unit at all - I reach under the hood, and it isn't turned on by a switch, but rather by a knob based rheostat for speed control, with a switched off position - even at the lowest setting you could hear the fan. It was set at about halfway. So - somehow, the blower turned on, and went to half speed - but we didn't hear the click of the switch, and it wasn't on at all prior when we were talking...)
I swear this is true - I wish I were making it up...
My system is rather set up wierd - I have two tower systems underneath a 6 foot folding table, 19 inch monitor to one side, keyboard, hub, KVM switch, printer, scanner - and various other things.
Now, this setup is out in the middle of the floor - all the wires are laying along the back, in a loose bundle. For power, and my network connection (which goes to a back room in the house), I run the wires up and along the ceiling, then down to the outlets (the wires are bundled in cable split-loom tubing). Anyhow, my speakers are on the wall, up high, each near the corner of the room directly across from me. The sub is down low, all is connected through a garage sale stereo (with tape deck etc - hooked up to allow me to make MP3s of old tapes a friend and I recorded in HS, another story). They are wired together well - using normal connectors - except for the wire between the speakers (one is amped, and drives the other on the other end of the wall) - which is soldered well, of 12 gauge stranded wire.
Anyhow, all this is hooked up to my SuSE Linux system, running ALSA, so I can play my MP3s and whatnot through XMMS. It works well, and has good sound (not the best, but adequate for my needs). Pretty, though - it isn't - rat's nest would be a better word for it.
Anyhow, I am sitting there late one night, just browsing around, doing a little Perl coding, and the like. Not playing any music. Nobody else is in the house, so it is pretty quiet...
I hear a sound - like somebody talking. But in the attic? Or - maybe it is coming from the speakers. I can tell it is a human voice. But I can't understand it. I get closer, wait for it again - there! - but even though I am right next to the speaker, all I can tell is that it is a man's voice - nothing more.
It sorta sounds like speech - but I don't know what it is. Scared the shit out of me the first time it occurred - thought it was in the attic - because our attic is open on the sides (to allow air to blow through - you gotta see this house we rent), and anyone could climb up into the attic if they were inclined enough.
I don't know what it is - but it only comes through when the speakers are on (if everything is unplugged from the computer and stereo - but the speakers are on, it will still happen). I have theorized that it is simply radio interference - except it doesn't sound like a radio broadcast. I have thought it might be walkie-talkies from construction, or CB radio - but this is at night, and while we have construction going on around us, as well as a nearby rock quarry - they are both shut-down at night...
Of course - it doesn't help that both me and my SO have seen some strange shit in the house (doors openning and closing on thier own, appliances, TVs, and lights turning on and off spontaneously, we even have some funky pictures taken last halloween - in that case, there is the "ghost fog" streaked through the image of one of our guests we were taking pics of, but the guest pics taken before and after that guest, in the same spot - do not show the streaks, and it was done with the same camera, not more than a few minutes apart).
I am not making this up - and everyone here knows that I am a pretty rational and intelligent individual, or at least I hope. My rational side says that there is a good explanation for it - and indeed - for most of the things that happen, there is. But some of the things I have seen (as well as some of the things my SO has seen which I hadn't, but I have no reason to doubt her veracity) - let's just say it stretches the mind.
Anybody up for a real haunted house Halloween?
My favorite version of the rocket car story:
http://www.ddave.com/rocketcar/
Read it. Yes, it is long - but it is arguably the best story on the internet...
So - is this the truth about the rocket car? Or is it...something else?
I leave that for you to decide in the end...
I would also suggest the last King's Quest - while the 3D engine is no where near top notch, the game most certainly follows in the story telling tradition of King's Quest (though the violence level went up), as well as the puzzle solving.
You shouldn't have any problems, or very few.
I did an upgrade from a P200 motherboard with 96 meg of 72pin SIMM memory, to a Celeron 366 with 128meg of SDRAM (since then expanded to 768 meg) - and I think the only problem I encountered was with my ZIP drive not working properly due to a funkiness with the parallel port, but that was due to a bios setting, IIRC.
Anyhow, you shouldn't have any problems. As you can see, mine was a pretty radical upgrade (waaay different motherboards, chipsets, RAM, etc), but it was really easy.
Now, you want to know about funky - you should see my hybrid SuSE 6.3/7.2 Personal install/upgrade...
That was a great interview - I have it in my head that Wil Wheaton is this young whiny kid from STNG - but then he says he is 29 - and my gawd! Where did the time go...
I am 28 - and it doesn't seem that long ago that I watched STNG - and I have this image.
Wil, you grew up - and that was your character, anyway - and I always thought of the character as whiny. I know it wasn't your fault.
You have something that many people hardly learn - you know what you are "meant" to do, what you enjoy and are good at: acting. Few learn this, and continue to try different things, and are unsatisfied with all their choices - and tend to wonder why. You seem to understand this. So don't worry about becoming an "ultra-geek" and running Linux - that isn't what you do.
But if you really want to run it, there are plenty of people here willing and able to help you get it going, and most of the fun of Linux is in the challenge of getting it going, rather than the use of it (anyhow, that is how I feel). Also, as a tip - try SuSE 7.2 (or whatever the latest release is) - I have seen die-hard Windows fans install it and marvel at how simple it was to get working (of course, that is an anecdotal story, take it for what it is worth)...
Sounds like you are going for one of the BIDS (https://www.bids.tswg.gov/) projects.
Based on other posts, I would guess your project involves face-rec in an airport. As others have noted, I think your requirements are way too high, even for the app you may have in mind.
Your res is OK, and is probably necessary - no need to change that - but I would drop the greyscale a bit, from 8 bit greyscale to 4-6 bit greyscale. If you went with 6 bit greyscale, you would end up with 230KB/frame - with 4 bit greyscale, it would be 153KB/frame.
Drop the frame rate to 15 frame/s, and you would end up with 3.5 MB/s per camera (6 bit) and 2.3 MB/s (4 bit). Do your vid compression and you would be looking at ~35 KB/s (35 MB/s) and ~23 KB/s (23 MB/s) respectively, or 2-3 TB/day - which is much more reasonable.
Even this can be improved - only record extreme movement - if you are doing face rec, you don't care if one pixel changes, or a few pixels change - even rapidly. But if a whole lot of pixels change, record that. In fact, you could even use a variable frame rate system to up the frame rate recorded, from say 0-1 FPS (little to no movement), up to 30 FPS (lots of movement, subject nearly fills camera FOV). Doing this will probably save a ton off of the bandwidth and storage requirements for the whole system - but this would be difficult to give numbers for without knowing the exact use of the system, camera placement, amount of traffic in camera path, etc. This would have to be known to decide whether to put such a system in place.
If making these changes to the requirements is not acceptable (I have seen a posting claiming you are a guy doing face-rec with an above 80% success rate, but that you need 8 bit greyscale, at 30 FPS) - you may be looking at a near impossible to implement system, without the ability to spend a lot of money for storage and processing needs. Something a government would be willing to do a few times for certain installations, but not something commercially viable, except for extreme economic situations (perhaps casinos and such).
Hope this helps...
Here is a good site that gives a good reference on what are, and how they work.
The are electric linear actuaters as well, that work on a telescoping lead screw rod type system, as well as solenoid based, and SMA (shape memory alloy) actuators - however, none of these have as fast response times, and waste more power.
Even air muscles aren't perfect, but they are interesting...
That is what I say - if you want it done right, and you want it done Free, build it yourself. Many hobbiests have built many walking and rolling robots - it isn't that hard to build a robot platform, and code it yourself.
The hardware to do this is almost literally lying around - both used and surplus parts, gearmotors, batteries, acrylic sheet - all of it is cheap, cheap, CHEAP!
Hell, I am on a budget right now saving for a house, and I am still able to find enough money to buy cheapo parts for a bot I am building. Those with more cashflow can go further, much further. Don't want to get "dirty"? Buy a Mindstorm kit or two!
Need a computer to control it all? A Basic Stamp is cheap enough, or you can get to the metal with a 16F84 PIC (hell, buy several - they are cheap enough, and a parallel port programmer is easy to build, plus code to convert BASIC to PIC opcodes is freely available on the net). Or, use an old 486 or pentium board - interface to an ISA slot, or hook an 8255A to the parallel port (or, if you don't need more than 20 or so bits of I/O, hook straight to the parallel port - but use hex buffers if you value the port). This stuff is cheap, often free! Want more "hack" value - use a C=64 or Apple IIe motherboard!!
Come on! We don't need Sony - THEY NEED US! Let them and the people that work for them suffer and starve for their corporate short-sightedness. That is the free market (like the market is really free anymore, but I doubt laws could be made to force us to buy from them).
Links about Water Rockets:
/ je lly.htmo zzle.gifi ll/pad_fil l.htma grosse/ h2oRocketIndex.htmc ket/index.htm
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/3810
http://www.netspace.net.au/~bradcalv/t-n
http://mpassero.tripod.com/rocket/pad_f
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/p
http://mpassero.tripod.com/ro
There are probably more links than these. I am not karma whoring, it just didn't seem like anyone posted links to the "sport" of water-rocket building. It is too bad that they limit the size, etc - some water rocket builder/enthusiasts have built 2 and 3 stage rockets, added cameras and other payload packages - sent thier rockets up super high (higher than you would think)...
I have never tried Debian, but it is on my list for "next install" (I currently run SuSE). I figure that by the time I do go to my "next install", that DVDs will be pretty much standard across the board for both OS installs and other software (regardless of OS). It is rapidly going that route.
However, I am a "conciensious (sp?) objector" to the tight fist of the MPAA - buying a DVD drive will give them their "fee", because said drive will most certainly include software for movie playing (though it will be for that other OS), which will have a licence fee attached to it.
If I could just by the drive, and only the drive - then I might consider it - but I still don't know if the MPAA doesn't have their hand still in the cookie jar somewhere.
Do I need to just bite the bullet, and throw my moral and political objections out the window? I don't think I can do that! I suppose I could buy the drive, then donate $50.00 or so to the EFF... I would rather not have any money whatsoever go to the MPAA...
I suppose I could just not buy Debian (or any other distro on DVD) - ideas or suggestions, anybody?
Maybe he will, and maybe he won't - more than likely it is one of those higher end boxes, but - hey, I don't know.
But think of this - decode the MP3s on a beefy server, then stream the resulting PCM - a 486 could easily buffer and play that from the network. There are even tools that allow this under Linux and other *nixs - check my site and go to the Acer NT-150 stb hacking page - there are some links for this...
A few of the people on the mailing list sell them via ebay auctions. These devices aren't off-the-shelf things - they were made by Acer specifically for OEM use - Acer won't even acknowledge much of anything about them. So, the only people who got them were cable companies and a few others. In America, it was N|C (now Liberate), in Europe it was NTL (cable company). Some of the people related to these companies and others have found my list and have helped with the hacking (providing needed info, selling boxes, etc).
So, yeah, they are available, but only sporadically...
Actually - that isn't a bad idea - back during the 80's, when everyone and his brother was competing with Atari (it seemed), a lot of small pong systems were developed. In fact, at one time there was a "pong-on-a-chip" made (forget which manufacturer) that required very few external parts. Your idea, in fact, would not be unfeasible - and if built, I bet, would instantly be a "classic hack", at least with the /. crowd...
I have been "running" a group for a while now (almost a year old) dedicated to the task of hacking the Acer NT-150 set-top box - this box was intended for an actual service that never made it during the .com era - a lot of people have put a lot of work into getting this box to do things it wasn't meant to do.
Go to my site, follow the links, and see what has been happenning (actually, the mailing list archive is the most useful and up-to-date - I haven't had a lot of time to update the site for a while, but the majority of stuff is there as well).
While not an "MP3" playing powerhouse, there has been a ton of hack value...
I have this sense of feeling like this "war" is like the "wars" described in Orwell's 1984 - it is a background thing, that no one knows much about, but that it is happenning, only because our government and the media say it is happenning.
I want real information - I want the truth on what is happenning. For all I _really_ know - nothing is happenning - no war, no anthrax - other than the WTC collapse, nothing else has verifiable impartial 3rd party support. Maybe the anthrax stuff does - but I already know that I should fear it less than getting in my car to drive to work.
But the war? No info, every day - it seemed immediately after the attack on the WTC, the news was bustling - new stories every day - stories of horror and hope. A week later, the shutdown began.
Now, nothing new really happens - or so it seems. I think if this sense of "nothing happening" goes on long enough, the average joe on the street is going to end up not caring about anything that is going on in regards to the "War on Terrorism" - that it will become pure background noise, nobody caring about rights and other crap being trampled upon.
Similar to the "War on (some) Drugs" - today, nobody really cares, and even the news have stopped reporting on it - but it still goes on, every day - I remember in the 80's when it seemed like they were reporting a drive by gang-related drug related shooting every day - now, it still happens - but you never hear about it anymore - people have tuned it out, to the detriment of their rights, among a ton of other stuff.
The same thing is occurring with the current situation, but it seems to be occuring faster - it has been barely a month since the WTC attack - but it feels like years, in a way...
I would have to agree that lying helps. Of course, I have an anecdotal story, that has lies, truths, and other such things in it - but turned out great all the same...
I purchased a Fujix P-401 video projector at a swap meet a while back. I picked it up for $250.00 (this projector is the cheesiest vid projector one can buy - NTSC, size of video tape, 320x200 res - ack - but I wanted something to play with), and the dealer (who dealt in used vid equipment) told me it worked. I got it home, and let it sit for a few weeks - then tried it out. It mostly worked, but half the screen was snowy, right down the middle. I figured it was a bad LCD or driver chip, or a loose connector. What happened next is where the fun began.
I decided first to check it myself, to see if anything obvious was happenning - I tried reseating connectors, etc - no dice. So I figured I would send it in to Fuji...
Now, Fuji hasn't made this projector in about 10 years. So, I didn't think they would do anything for free. But, I had an ace up my sleeve, so to speak: in the packaging that came with the projector, I had the instruction manual, as well as the 1 year warantee card - but not just the warantee card - but the one for me, _and_ the one for the retailer!!! Both were new and _blank_!!! A little searching, and I found that the address had since changed for it to be mailed to. So, I called Fuji up, asked about sending it to the new address - they said fine. So I did.
A few weeks later, I checked back and asked if they had gotten my warantee card - they said yes. I told them about my problem - and they said to send it in, but include a copy of the receipt, and to hell with the warantee info - I thought "Oh crap, they will know that the dealer who sold it to me is not an authorised Fuji dealer!" - but I had put that down on the warantee card, so I figured, "What the hell?" and sent the projector and the copy of the warantee and receipt to them.
I called about a week later after I had confirmed it had arrived at their location, and asked what was happenning. They had gotten it, and would work on it shortly. I called again a few days later - and the person on the phone actually said something about "Fuji not making that projector for a long time" - but didn't go any further with the thought - here she had my warantee, receipt, etc - all in "new" condition - she wondered how I bought it - I played dumb, and, well, it worked...
A couple of weeks later I got the projector back - in perfect condition. They cleaned it, put a new light in, put in a new LCD and driver chip - and it works fine! No charge, nada!!!
Talk about great support!
So, you see - I lied, a bit - but at the same time I was telling the truth. Since the warantee reg was NEVER sent in, or marked in any way - who is to really say I didn't buy it "new" on the day I did - maybe it was hidden in the back of a warehouse somewhere. Fuji could have easily denied me my support, just on the ludicrousness of the whole situation, if someone had thought about it good and hard - but they came through anyway!
Amazing!!! 256 Bytes!!! Humbling, to say the LEAST!!!
.com file, for DOS - but it runs _fine_ under NT!!!
People - download this and try it, and be amazed!!! It is
My head is spinning!!!
I can't use enough exclamation points!!!
Actually, I have heard that they have 90 days, at which time they have to call back the troops, or formerly declare war. I don't know what the truth or source of this is, though.
One thing that is interesting is that by not declaring war, in theory the US is not bound by the Geneva Convention (I think that is right) - thus all the rules on POW treatment, etc - are out the window for both sides.
I wasn't really disagreeing with the searches, per se, but rather the statement that we are "at War". The public, as well as many people here on /. - actually believe we are at "War", and think "War" has been declared, when it has not.
I do disagree with any violations of American civil rights as protected by our Constitution, in the name of needing to fight this undeclared "war".
All jobs have pros and cons, one of the cons about jobs that affect everyone in general is that when there is a WAR your personal freedoms get a little squashed.
America is not officially at War - Congress has yet to issue a Declaration of War.