ie I can actually write letters instead of weird glyphs that I have to memorize
Wha...?
That doesn't even make sense - you learned the alphabet, right? You are too lazy to learn a second? Actually, the Palm's glyphs are relatively easy to adapt to, from what little I have played with them. I would personally buy a Palm and fully learn it, if I had a real world use for one (actually, I am beginning to think I do, what with all the information I keep, etc).
Yes, there are such people as cooking geeks. W&S is absolutely the best for quality small items (and some larger things - but much of that can be gotten elsewhere for less) for the kitchen. I particularly like the W&S kitchen towels - quite possibly the best kitchen towels I have ever used.
To be honest, I am not the cooking geek in my family, my GF is. But I can recognize good stuff when I see it, and generally try to get her the best that we can afford so she can make us nice meals...
I agree with you on that NAT can break applications, but I tend to think it isn't because of NAT, per se, but rather those applications aren't coded with the possibility of NAT in mind. Obviously many other commonly used applications can go through a NAT'ed system just fine - browsers, telnet clients, FTP, email, etc. The idea that we should get rid of NAT because some applications aren't coded properly just doesn't make sense in my book.
I also agree that a regular rule based firewall would protect just as well, provided that you had the IP's - such firewalls are available cheaply or freely for both Windows and Linux (and I suspect Macs and others as well), so that isn't an issue. However, the issue (or at least it should be an issue) with "consumers" (god I hate that term) is that the providers want to charge "per-PC" connected. $5.00 per IP may not sound like much, but 10 devices later it is a chunk of change (not possible? Let's see: Your two machines, your SO's machine, your kid's machine, the fridge, the two cars - audio, etc - the three TV's - BAM! There ya go!). Even if it was only $1.00 per IP, that would still be $10.00 extra dollars a month.
Calling in from outside? That is possible under NAT, just give the access to route a specific port to an internal address. I know it is possible, because I am planning on setting up a personal bookmark server behind my NAT firewall, that I want to admin. I looked into what the LRP could do, and what various distros based on it could do, and all of them allowed this. So, in theory, it should be easily possible to route to an internal box with a properly NAT'ed system.
Your last point is simply a matter of convenience. I can see having the transparency of a single IP no matter where you are - that would be a nice thing. Not that I will ever have a laptop with wireless capability (kinda outside of my price range, and I really don't have a use for it yet), but if I did, with a NAT'ed solution I could do a couple of things - I could manually change the IP (a slight pain), or I could set up some kind of system to detect what I was attempting to use, and have it automatically change the IP for me on the fly. Unless I am running some form of server on the laptop where others would need to know my IP, there shouldn't be any real problem.
I am not saying we shouldn't use IPv6, we should. But you better bet that when it is rolled out for all the plebes and their dogs to use, the providers will charge as much as the market can stand for each and every IP address, which is one good reason why NAT should be embraced.
By modifying the software to keep you from fast forwarding through commercials (and probably taking a cut from the corps as well for supplying this "service").
This "upgrade" will probably also come with a "feature" to disallow you from dumping TV shows from the TV to your VCR (ahem; CRM - pesky fair use laws, damn Constitution)...
The majority of homes - heck, I would say the majority of geek homes included - should only need a maximum of five addresses, if that. Your home network should be NAT'ed behind the firewall - after that, the network class could be damn near whatever you wanted. With the right firewall (read , a good one), you could have any addresses you wanted, or you could go the cheap route, and use the unroutable address ranges (10.x.x.x, there are two others, can't remember them off the top o' my head right now), for a NATural (in marketing-speak) firewall (heh, side note - have you noticed that is how they market the low cost firewall routers, such as the ones by Linksys? They call them natural firewalls - do they really think NAT means NATural?)...
I have a friend who lives in what I can only call a bachelor pad, who runs a cable modem with now firewalling at all, and each guy in the pad pays for their own IP. I keep trying to tell them how it would be cheaper (and better, since they run winders like mad) for them to NAT the place, but they won't do it - too hard to set up, I dunno.
The cable companies and DSL companies both have a marketing campaign to get the most bucks out of people by exploiting their lack of knowledge of networking. If they could get away with it (and I bet a lot of people are dumb enough to do it, if the telcos/cablecos could technically do it - actually, the cablecos can, they've been doing it with TVs all along) they would charge for a new line to each machine.
I hate fucking companies who prey on other's ignorance - then try to ram it down the throats of individuals who KNOW better.
There is just so much information, facts, articles, anecdotes, etc to cover. I don't want to be pessimistic, but the fact is I have read a TON of "History of Computers" and they ALL come up short in some respect. Some leave out important details, some contradict others.
When I say I have read histories, I mean it. I have a couple of "History of Computers" books - wait, let me grab one - - Here it is:
"COMPUTERS: The Machines We Think With" by D.S. Halacy, Jr. (Dell Books, 1962)
A very yellowed paperback, I might add. Pretty good book giving a good overview of the history and current progress (for the time) of computers. I have a ton more. Typically, what I have found to be the best "histories" of computers are books that are current for the time, showing the tech where it is at "right then".
The field is just so large - I daresay you could spend your life just gathering the information for the history, nevermind trying to organize it for printing (if it could fit in book form!). You could spend an entire book on the history of the punch card (and why the text monitor standard was 80 columns wide - they are related).
One frustrating thing you would find would be the number of dead ends - and lost data on various machines and systems. One area I have always wanted to find out more about was the hobbiest scene of the late 60s to early 70's, just prior to the invention of the 4004 - I am sure it existed, with people making their own machines from telephone relays and other equipment in their garages or basements - but there is so little to go on about such things (I have an article about how to build a telephone dialer system using simple logic circuits and a drum program system to dial a phone - a dial phone, mind you - for when a burglar breaks into your house - simple systems like that were being done, possibly more complex ones existed as well). It is hard to even find stuff from the 70's - I found one book digging through a used bookstore one how to build "The TV Typewriter" - most histories don't even mention it, but it is a big part of personal computing!
Good luck - you will need it. The best you will be able to do is skim. Perhaps let your students know this, teach them how to find out more about the topics themselves. There is so much out there...
Yeah, and the same company that brought you that ultra-cool dual deck VCR (more than like Go Video, right?), has brought out a combo VCR and DVD player - and hawk them at Blockbuster! Now, you might be wondering why they would build such a thing, since presumably you would rent the DVD at Blockbuster, take it home, and make a copy of the DVD on a tape (which would be against copyright law), right? Nope - can't do that, they note in some fine print on a flyer (but _not_ on the box itself!).
That is all cool by me - but what if you wanted to make a tape copy of a brand new DVD you bought that you like watching a lot - in theory, fair use, right? Nope - this deck won't allow you! Want to tape an excerpt to show in the drama class you teach at the high school? Nope - can't do that either. Fair use be damned!
But does that stop consumers? No - just like it didn't stop you from buying and attempting to use the VCR you paid for (hopefully in a fair use fashion - but what you do on your own time is YOUR business, not mine). So what is a citizen (not a consumer - get that out of your head NOW - NOW DAMNIT! YOU ARE A CITIZEN - AN INDIVIDUAL WITH RIGHTS, RIGHTS THAT TRANCEND MERE CONSUMERISM!) to do?
Stop any and all contact with those corps and groups who deny your fair use rights, who deny your CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED RIGHTS! Tell anyone who will listen about what is happening - educate the public! Hell, tell anyone, and if they refuse to listen, say it a little louder. If they tell you to shut up, tell them that is what the corps (with a little help from OUR own government!) are slowly doing to them. If even a trickle gets through, it will help.
Point them to/. - point them to the 2600 case, point them to whereever they can get information - print it and post it if you have to. Don't rent/buy tapes, don't buy music, don't see movies, don't take your kid to Disneyland, and a slew of others I can't even begin to name (the level that these companies have wormed their way into the collective fabric of the world is INSANE - I mean, your damn diskwasher might be made by a wholly owned subsidiary of a subsidiary of one of these companies!).
Sometimes I think I should go live in the woods - but what good would that do me - and what good would it do others. So participate - and get the word out, vote for those who seem with you, and let them know why you voted for them, when you can...
Write your own custom code to do real basic IP stuff for the networking (have fun!)...
Should be able to do all this cheaply - less than $300. Hard part is the coding, getting a small IP stack written to fit, and comm protocol code as well. It is more than possible though...
Finally, when you have it all done, got the VC's lined up stuffin' your pockets with cash, and you bring it to market - think of me, and send me a check of appreciation...;)
Nah, the other poster was closer - it was like 89 or 90 when we did this (you see, our programming class was stuck with Apple IIe's, while the Computer class, where one learned how to wordprocess, had 286's, and the Mac lab was, well a Mac lab - best machine was a Mac II color - don't know any other specs on it). Anyhow, you figure 1989 - my home computer was a Tandy CoCo 3 with 512K, 286's were the mid-range machine, and the 386 was top-of-the-line. But a CoCo was cheaper than either, and Apple IIe's were still expensive (but not the ones we had, which broke down more often than not, needing new drives, etc - they were ancient - but a lot of kids learned coding on them)...
Imagine if you had some way (think nanotech or fast STM) to arrange the atoms at the other end into molecules, and from there up. Matter transporter/3d Fax/replicator/world's best RPD station? If you could deconstruct the other end, perhaps wired teleportation. All of this is blue sky stuff, but remember you heard it here first, and these ideas are public and prior art (ok, I am sure someone else has thought of them in relation to this fiber, perhaps)...
In high school (over 10 years ago - eeek!) me and a friend would set up an Apple IIe hooked to a color monitor in our programming class (we took it for the points, and as a break - nothing more) with a Mandelbrot program written in BASIC (!), utilizing the funky 16 color mode (oooh!) that you could hack if you had an 80 column card. At any rate, we would let it run until our class, in the 5th period or so, where it would complete by the end of class, and save to floppy. We would then work out where we wanted to "magnify", and start the run the next day. Got some pretty neat pictures... for an Apple IIe...
QBasic is limited, I will grant you that - but you shouldn't base all your biases against BASIC on that one version (and actually, you can draw primitives to off-screen bitmaps if you use SCREEN 7 - SCREEN 13 isn't supported natively though, but you could always use my Blast! Library to obtain it). I acknowledge that there are libraries for C/C++ for game programming, but they aren't intrinsic parts of the language. For an individual new to programming, they probably won't even know what a library is!
Visual Basic != Blitz Basic. Lack of a recognized standard for the Basic language creates a tremendous learning curve from one dialect to another. For example, some dialects have line numbers; others don't. Some use gosub for function calls; others use call; others use fn; others have a more C-like syntax. Some Basic dialects have multiline if...then...else...end if; others only allow if condition then goto 12345.
No it doesn't - I have coded under so many different dialects of BASIC that my head hurts. It is true that there isn't forward compatibility (ie, most BASICs that require line numbers won't work without them, like GWBASIC), but most modern BASICs have standardized on the dialect of QuickBASIC, sometimes VB (which has QuickBASIC 4.5, PDS 7, and DOS VB influences). Blitz probably falls outside of this standard (actually, I think the best PC BASIC is PowerBASIC, created by the programmer of TurboBASIC).
On Error GoTo is a piece - this is one bit (that, and the menu creation system) programmers have howled over forever since M$ came out with VB for Windows. The error handling is attrocious. M$ has always said we'll fix it on next release, but have yet to do it (supposedly in VB7, but I will believe it when I see it).
When I meant "Genesis", I meant the Genesis SDK engine, a 3D engine designed for interfacing to VB.
Most of the Linux BASICs adhere to a QuickBASIC structure/dialect/standard, so yes, for the most part code done on one will compile (with limited changes) on the other.
For the _best_ info on BASIC, to answer more of your questions on standardization, etc - and for compiler links, etc, go here:
You have obviously never played with Blitz or AMOS.
I have (on the Amiga, when they came out). Both were DAMN FAST on the Amiga - game programming was no problem there. Of course, most of the work (at least in AMOS) for manipulating the chipset had been done for you, an implemented as BASIC commands (like to scroll a graphics screen - you used the SCROLL command).
BASIC has the easiest learning curve (and if you already know BASIC, no learning curve). There are scads of books on BASIC available (some of the best are the oldest - having listings of Wumpus and Star Trek is fun). Tons of code for all other kinds of BASIC exist on the net (check out the All Basic Code Archives if you are interested in what BASIC can do in good hands).
It is more than possible to program games in some dialect of BASIC today, provided it is a good dialect (even VB - couple it with OpenGL, DirectX, or some other engine, like Genesis, and you could easily make a kicking 3D game. I do know that a few people have done this - in fact, one guy had a dungeon crawl using a custom OpenGL engine and VB, called Mordor 2, later the name was changed when Black Isle Studios picked him up to develop it, they later dropped him, but he still develops it - fun multiplayer network RPG, in 3D, done in VB).
There are several free, open-source compilers for Linux, a couple for using under X as well. Many allow hooks to C and ASM, if you want it.
I will never understand why BASIC is knocked so much nowadays - you would think programmers would know better. It isn't a be-all end-all tool. But in a way, it is close.
You're not, AC - if this is how it works, it doesn't sound that safe. I would much rather the process is a user process, and root has to go in every now and then and manually run the update, selecting which packages to update. Maybe the system uses sudo or similar to give access to a user process only to certain areas - who knows?
What I don't understand, if the original poster of this thread is correct, is why someone at said "client" doesn't just set up a single server (and a single license with RedHat), set up for free updates, then use that machine to update all the other machines on the network running a copy of RedHat (it isn't necessary for each machine to auto update - talk about a waste of bandwidth)? This shouldn't be that difficult to set up, and bypasses the monthly fee - right?
Hey, I am all for RedHat to make money - and I agree that this is a value added service, and should be charged for. No problems here with that. But they better hope their normal business users are all dumb, or have incompetent admins (running Linux - hah - probably some MCSE who picked up a book on RedHat and now thinks he knows something - that or a management type trying to get ahead)...
Your idea, my implementation idea, hopefully will show prior art when someone tries to patent it.
Anyhow...
Imagine if the "tarp" was made with black colored Tyvek, and on the roll were two layers (like toilet paper), however, along the length of the roll the Tyvek is "bonded" (however they do this process - heat?) in a wavy back-and-forth across the length, so that a "tube" is formed. Cut at the right place, and you have an inlet and outlet for the water. Hook up the water system and go...
Of course, all of this supposes one thing - Tyvek won't rot in the sun and weather. Not sure how well it would stand up in such conditions, pressurized with water. Perhaps another material could be used, like PVC or PEC?
Ack! I feel for your chaos (or, maybe it isn't chaotical (?) for you)...
Anyhow, that line is what I am wanting to stave off, the point where I can't transport my bookmarks via floppy and have to start zipping them, then finally emailing them - until there are too many to email...
One thing I noticed when I was reorganizing my bookmarks, that I had a fair amount of duplicates, scattered all over the place. This was from creating a bookmark in multiple places, due to it being able to fit into multiple categories - thus, a bookmark to the Livid site might actually fall under "computers/software/video/linux", as well as "computers/hardware/dvd" or some such. This inability to cross reference bookmarks is something I hope to overcome with my code using categorical meta-tags on the bookmarks, coupled with a search engine - so you can browse the categories ala Yahoo, or search them instead. It is a VERY complicated system that I am still designing, in order to make it as easy as possible for me to code it.
You are going through this too? Information junkie, I suppose? Perhaps like me?
I have over 500K of bookmarks, and it grows by a few bookmarks every day. While I don't know if this is a "record" number of bookmarks for an individual, I can surely tell you it is an insane number.
I use Netscape on both my home PCs and my work PC, and in order to keep the chaos down, and keep my bookmarks up to date, the system I currently use is this:
I only add bookmarks when I am at work. When I find a site at home that I want to bookmark, I email the address to my work, and bookmark it there. Almost every day I copy the bookmarks (with a script) from my work box to a floppy, and take them home. At home I run a script to copy them from the floppy to Netscape. The script also makes a copy to my shared samba area so that the Windows PCs can get to the links.
This has worked out well, but it was frustrating to update the links this way. It has been even more of a problem organizing that many links. I recently spent a couple of days reorganizing the links to make them "fit" better, and be more hierarchical to find them better, but it still isn't what I want. My solution?
I am going to write my own bookmark CGI (in PERL - which I am learning as I work on it), and host it off a small webserver from my cable connection. While such sites (as mentioned prior) do exist that does this, that is way too much information to allow just anybody to have access too (do you really want people to know all your favorite browsing areas?).
My goal is to create this system to allow a few security levels, like Admin, Trusted User, User, and Guest, and put in the links database what level can view what - ie, a link marked as User could be viewed by someone with Trusted User and Admin Access, but not by Guests. I would have logins and passwords - so I could give out access to friends. I would be able to access the server from nearly anywhere, on any machine. With admin access, I will be able to add links, move links, delete links, change links, do all that with users and privilege levels, etc. Maybe even have templates to customise the look of the site - maybe add "news of the day", and clip headlines from/. and k5.
Yeah, I checked freshmeat for such systems, and found a few, but none had the security options - most seemed tailored for a "free-for-all" type situation, with the ability to do remote maintenance, but no way to limit viewability of links. I plan on my system to be different, and much more flexible.
It is a big task, and not suited for everybody, but it is the road I am going down, to preserve my sanity!
Great ideas - I would like to add that I have seen this sort of stuff done in VERY VERY old copies of Byte magazine, most notably in Ciacia's Circuit Cellar portion. If you have the skills and the time, you can do this cheap.
I have no idea where Heiserman went, but if he did anything interesting it should be out there, either on the web or in Gopher space. I think I'll have a look later tonight. I'll report back if I find anythin!
Actually, finding anything about any of the 70's and 80's robot makers is near impossible, in my experience. Recently, I found what happened to Ben Skora, and his robot AROK - they both were featured on a home show recently about "strange" homes (Ben lives in this weird UFO shaped house he built in the early 70's - complete with all the disco era trimmings - you know automated lights and entertainment, that kind of thing). Apparently AROK is still around.
There are other robots whose whereabouts are completely unknown - one that I was always curious on was named C.H.A.R.L.I.E. (an acronym that means something, I forget what, but his inventor was also named Charlie, I believe). There are many others from the time. I just tend to wonder what happened to them...
I was younger when I first read the books, and didn't have anywhere near enough money (or skill) to try to build one. When I got older, and managed to find and buy the books (no mean feat, those kind of TAB books you grab when you see them, no waiting), it was clear from reading them (knowing you have the skills now) that it would cost more to build either device than it would be worth in the end.
But by having all three, and seeing how simple Rodney is sensor-wise (I think all it has, IIRC, is some bump sensors, and some current-draw sensors on the motors - maybe a sound and light sensor), was that you could wire it all up to a cheap 486 laptop, and use the code from "Robot Intelligence" to achieve the same device, but cheaper.
I have two copies of the book, one in fully readable condition, and one "strange". I assume the "strange" one to be due to a publishing error, but I wonder how many got out of the publisher, and how many were kept (ie, not returned)?
Anyhow, my GF got the book for me a couple of xmases ago. She bought it off Amazon, and when I received it, I immediately began reading it. About a third of the way through, the book "repeated" - I thought I was losing my mind, but the text did repeat. I scanned farther forward, and it "repeated" again, never getting more than 50-75 pages "forward". I think there was a production problem, and multiple "leaves"(? Can't remember what the individual page bundles are called in publishing) got inserted. Funny thing was, the bundles weren't from near the end of the area I was at, but instead were from the mid-beginning, from a point I was well past.
Anyhow, it made the book unreadable, so I had my GF ask for another from Amazon - they complied, but never asked for the original back in return. I just wonder how unique it is...?
I should've posted that link myself - I have a link to it, but they are widely seperated in my bookmarks (the LCDProc thing is under Linux-Hardware, while the other LCD stuff is under something like Vendors-New-Hardware-Electronics-LCDs).
Arggh! I hate these bookmarks! I have in mind to create a web server for hosting my bookmark collection, so I can add-change-delete bookmarks at will, anywhere on the net, and give permissions and access to others, etc (I have a ton of ideas for this here). I have around 500k (!) of bookmarks, and I want to search them, shown by rating into categories, so as to allow links to be cross-category indexed and such.
BTW, on the LCDProc thing - has anyone written a driver/interface to display data from the LRP (or an LRP distro)? I am going to soon be building such a box, and having that kind of a panel on the front would really make the box perfect.
I haven't read the book mentioned in the article, but I have read (and played with the programs contained in it) a much earlier book, published in 1981 by TAB Books, called "Robot Intelligence (with experiments)" by David L. Heiserman (TAB Books, 1981, ISBN 0-8306-9685-7).
In this book, the author explores ideas and meanings behind a type of life he calls "Evolutionay Adaptive Machine Intelligence" or EAMI for short. He explores this through a number of BASIC code programs written in stages, from simple "Alpha-class" systems, to much more complex "Gamma-class" systems.
What makes this book all the more interesting is that in theory (and I believe this is explored somewhat in the book) you can apply all of this back to real-world machines: This book is simply the culmination of two earlier robotics project books by the same author: "Build Your Own Working Robot" (TAB Books, 1976, ISBN 0-8306-6841-1) and "How to Build Your Own Self-Programming Robot" (TAB Books, 1979, ISBN 0-8306-9760-8). This last book actually started to explore the concepts outlined in "Robot Intelligence", but stopped just short of it. The point is, this series of books showed the hobbiest of a couple of decades ago (thereabouts) how to build real ALife, long before it was very popular (not to mention cheap).
I encourage anyone with interest in this subject to pick these three books up. As far as I know, they are long out of print, so happy hunting.
In a side note - does anyone know what happened to Mr. Heiserman and his robots?
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ie I can actually write letters instead of weird glyphs that I have to memorize
Wha...?
That doesn't even make sense - you learned the alphabet, right? You are too lazy to learn a second? Actually, the Palm's glyphs are relatively easy to adapt to, from what little I have played with them. I would personally buy a Palm and fully learn it, if I had a real world use for one (actually, I am beginning to think I do, what with all the information I keep, etc).
Give it a chance, and don't be so lazy...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Yes, there are such people as cooking geeks. W&S is absolutely the best for quality small items (and some larger things - but much of that can be gotten elsewhere for less) for the kitchen. I particularly like the W&S kitchen towels - quite possibly the best kitchen towels I have ever used.
To be honest, I am not the cooking geek in my family, my GF is. But I can recognize good stuff when I see it, and generally try to get her the best that we can afford so she can make us nice meals...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
I agree with you on that NAT can break applications, but I tend to think it isn't because of NAT, per se, but rather those applications aren't coded with the possibility of NAT in mind. Obviously many other commonly used applications can go through a NAT'ed system just fine - browsers, telnet clients, FTP, email, etc. The idea that we should get rid of NAT because some applications aren't coded properly just doesn't make sense in my book.
I also agree that a regular rule based firewall would protect just as well, provided that you had the IP's - such firewalls are available cheaply or freely for both Windows and Linux (and I suspect Macs and others as well), so that isn't an issue. However, the issue (or at least it should be an issue) with "consumers" (god I hate that term) is that the providers want to charge "per-PC" connected. $5.00 per IP may not sound like much, but 10 devices later it is a chunk of change (not possible? Let's see: Your two machines, your SO's machine, your kid's machine, the fridge, the two cars - audio, etc - the three TV's - BAM! There ya go!). Even if it was only $1.00 per IP, that would still be $10.00 extra dollars a month.
Calling in from outside? That is possible under NAT, just give the access to route a specific port to an internal address. I know it is possible, because I am planning on setting up a personal bookmark server behind my NAT firewall, that I want to admin. I looked into what the LRP could do, and what various distros based on it could do, and all of them allowed this. So, in theory, it should be easily possible to route to an internal box with a properly NAT'ed system.
Your last point is simply a matter of convenience. I can see having the transparency of a single IP no matter where you are - that would be a nice thing. Not that I will ever have a laptop with wireless capability (kinda outside of my price range, and I really don't have a use for it yet), but if I did, with a NAT'ed solution I could do a couple of things - I could manually change the IP (a slight pain), or I could set up some kind of system to detect what I was attempting to use, and have it automatically change the IP for me on the fly. Unless I am running some form of server on the laptop where others would need to know my IP, there shouldn't be any real problem.
I am not saying we shouldn't use IPv6, we should. But you better bet that when it is rolled out for all the plebes and their dogs to use, the providers will charge as much as the market can stand for each and every IP address, which is one good reason why NAT should be embraced.
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
By modifying the software to keep you from fast forwarding through commercials (and probably taking a cut from the corps as well for supplying this "service").
This "upgrade" will probably also come with a "feature" to disallow you from dumping TV shows from the TV to your VCR (ahem; CRM - pesky fair use laws, damn Constitution)...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
The majority of homes - heck, I would say the majority of geek homes included - should only need a maximum of five addresses, if that. Your home network should be NAT'ed behind the firewall - after that, the network class could be damn near whatever you wanted. With the right firewall (read , a good one), you could have any addresses you wanted, or you could go the cheap route, and use the unroutable address ranges (10.x.x.x, there are two others, can't remember them off the top o' my head right now), for a NATural (in marketing-speak) firewall (heh, side note - have you noticed that is how they market the low cost firewall routers, such as the ones by Linksys? They call them natural firewalls - do they really think NAT means NATural?)...
I have a friend who lives in what I can only call a bachelor pad, who runs a cable modem with now firewalling at all, and each guy in the pad pays for their own IP. I keep trying to tell them how it would be cheaper (and better, since they run winders like mad) for them to NAT the place, but they won't do it - too hard to set up, I dunno.
The cable companies and DSL companies both have a marketing campaign to get the most bucks out of people by exploiting their lack of knowledge of networking. If they could get away with it (and I bet a lot of people are dumb enough to do it, if the telcos/cablecos could technically do it - actually, the cablecos can, they've been doing it with TVs all along) they would charge for a new line to each machine.
I hate fucking companies who prey on other's ignorance - then try to ram it down the throats of individuals who KNOW better.
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
There is just so much information, facts, articles, anecdotes, etc to cover. I don't want to be pessimistic, but the fact is I have read a TON of "History of Computers" and they ALL come up short in some respect. Some leave out important details, some contradict others.
When I say I have read histories, I mean it. I have a couple of "History of Computers" books - wait, let me grab one - - Here it is:
"COMPUTERS: The Machines We Think With" by D.S. Halacy, Jr. (Dell Books, 1962)
A very yellowed paperback, I might add. Pretty good book giving a good overview of the history and current progress (for the time) of computers. I have a ton more. Typically, what I have found to be the best "histories" of computers are books that are current for the time, showing the tech where it is at "right then".
The field is just so large - I daresay you could spend your life just gathering the information for the history, nevermind trying to organize it for printing (if it could fit in book form!). You could spend an entire book on the history of the punch card (and why the text monitor standard was 80 columns wide - they are related).
One frustrating thing you would find would be the number of dead ends - and lost data on various machines and systems. One area I have always wanted to find out more about was the hobbiest scene of the late 60s to early 70's, just prior to the invention of the 4004 - I am sure it existed, with people making their own machines from telephone relays and other equipment in their garages or basements - but there is so little to go on about such things (I have an article about how to build a telephone dialer system using simple logic circuits and a drum program system to dial a phone - a dial phone, mind you - for when a burglar breaks into your house - simple systems like that were being done, possibly more complex ones existed as well). It is hard to even find stuff from the 70's - I found one book digging through a used bookstore one how to build "The TV Typewriter" - most histories don't even mention it, but it is a big part of personal computing!
Good luck - you will need it. The best you will be able to do is skim. Perhaps let your students know this, teach them how to find out more about the topics themselves. There is so much out there...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Yeah, and the same company that brought you that ultra-cool dual deck VCR (more than like Go Video, right?), has brought out a combo VCR and DVD player - and hawk them at Blockbuster! Now, you might be wondering why they would build such a thing, since presumably you would rent the DVD at Blockbuster, take it home, and make a copy of the DVD on a tape (which would be against copyright law), right? Nope - can't do that, they note in some fine print on a flyer (but _not_ on the box itself!).
/. - point them to the 2600 case, point them to whereever they can get information - print it and post it if you have to. Don't rent/buy tapes, don't buy music, don't see movies, don't take your kid to Disneyland, and a slew of others I can't even begin to name (the level that these companies have wormed their way into the collective fabric of the world is INSANE - I mean, your damn diskwasher might be made by a wholly owned subsidiary of a subsidiary of one of these companies!).
That is all cool by me - but what if you wanted to make a tape copy of a brand new DVD you bought that you like watching a lot - in theory, fair use, right? Nope - this deck won't allow you! Want to tape an excerpt to show in the drama class you teach at the high school? Nope - can't do that either. Fair use be damned!
But does that stop consumers? No - just like it didn't stop you from buying and attempting to use the VCR you paid for (hopefully in a fair use fashion - but what you do on your own time is YOUR business, not mine). So what is a citizen (not a consumer - get that out of your head NOW - NOW DAMNIT! YOU ARE A CITIZEN - AN INDIVIDUAL WITH RIGHTS, RIGHTS THAT TRANCEND MERE CONSUMERISM!) to do?
Stop any and all contact with those corps and groups who deny your fair use rights, who deny your CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED RIGHTS! Tell anyone who will listen about what is happening - educate the public! Hell, tell anyone, and if they refuse to listen, say it a little louder. If they tell you to shut up, tell them that is what the corps (with a little help from OUR own government!) are slowly doing to them. If even a trickle gets through, it will help.
Point them to
Sometimes I think I should go live in the woods - but what good would that do me - and what good would it do others. So participate - and get the word out, vote for those who seem with you, and let them know why you voted for them, when you can...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Start with a serial mag-stripe reader (many can be gotten for cheap from surplus electronics outlets like All Electronics).
;)
Add a Basic Stamp 2 from Parallax (or maybe your own PIC and extra EEPROM) and a MAX232 to communicate to the reader.
Connect that to one of these boards.
Write your own custom code to do real basic IP stuff for the networking (have fun!)...
Should be able to do all this cheaply - less than $300. Hard part is the coding, getting a small IP stack written to fit, and comm protocol code as well. It is more than possible though...
Finally, when you have it all done, got the VC's lined up stuffin' your pockets with cash, and you bring it to market - think of me, and send me a check of appreciation...
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Nah, the other poster was closer - it was like 89 or 90 when we did this (you see, our programming class was stuck with Apple IIe's, while the Computer class, where one learned how to wordprocess, had 286's, and the Mac lab was, well a Mac lab - best machine was a Mac II color - don't know any other specs on it). Anyhow, you figure 1989 - my home computer was a Tandy CoCo 3 with 512K, 286's were the mid-range machine, and the 386 was top-of-the-line. But a CoCo was cheaper than either, and Apple IIe's were still expensive (but not the ones we had, which broke down more often than not, needing new drives, etc - they were ancient - but a lot of kids learned coding on them)...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Imagine if you had some way (think nanotech or fast STM) to arrange the atoms at the other end into molecules, and from there up. Matter transporter/3d Fax/replicator/world's best RPD station? If you could deconstruct the other end, perhaps wired teleportation. All of this is blue sky stuff, but remember you heard it here first, and these ideas are public and prior art (ok, I am sure someone else has thought of them in relation to this fiber, perhaps)...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
http://www.ifpi.org/
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
In high school (over 10 years ago - eeek!) me and a friend would set up an Apple IIe hooked to a color monitor in our programming class (we took it for the points, and as a break - nothing more) with a Mandelbrot program written in BASIC (!), utilizing the funky 16 color mode (oooh!) that you could hack if you had an 80 column card. At any rate, we would let it run until our class, in the 5th period or so, where it would complete by the end of class, and save to floppy. We would then work out where we wanted to "magnify", and start the run the next day. Got some pretty neat pictures... for an Apple IIe...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
QBasic is limited, I will grant you that - but you shouldn't base all your biases against BASIC on that one version (and actually, you can draw primitives to off-screen bitmaps if you use SCREEN 7 - SCREEN 13 isn't supported natively though, but you could always use my Blast! Library to obtain it). I acknowledge that there are libraries for C/C++ for game programming, but they aren't intrinsic parts of the language. For an individual new to programming, they probably won't even know what a library is!
Visual Basic != Blitz Basic. Lack of a recognized standard for the Basic language creates a tremendous learning curve from one dialect to another. For example, some dialects have line numbers; others don't. Some use gosub for function calls; others use call; others use fn; others have a more C-like syntax. Some Basic dialects have multiline if...then...else...end if; others only allow if condition then goto 12345.
No it doesn't - I have coded under so many different dialects of BASIC that my head hurts. It is true that there isn't forward compatibility (ie, most BASICs that require line numbers won't work without them, like GWBASIC), but most modern BASICs have standardized on the dialect of QuickBASIC, sometimes VB (which has QuickBASIC 4.5, PDS 7, and DOS VB influences). Blitz probably falls outside of this standard (actually, I think the best PC BASIC is PowerBASIC, created by the programmer of TurboBASIC).
On Error GoTo is a piece - this is one bit (that, and the menu creation system) programmers have howled over forever since M$ came out with VB for Windows. The error handling is attrocious. M$ has always said we'll fix it on next release, but have yet to do it (supposedly in VB7, but I will believe it when I see it).
When I meant "Genesis", I meant the Genesis SDK engine, a 3D engine designed for interfacing to VB.
Most of the Linux BASICs adhere to a QuickBASIC structure/dialect/standard, so yes, for the most part code done on one will compile (with limited changes) on the other.
For the _best_ info on BASIC, to answer more of your questions on standardization, etc - and for compiler links, etc, go here:
The All BASIC Code Archives
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And Basic is better how?
You have obviously never played with Blitz or AMOS.
I have (on the Amiga, when they came out). Both were DAMN FAST on the Amiga - game programming was no problem there. Of course, most of the work (at least in AMOS) for manipulating the chipset had been done for you, an implemented as BASIC commands (like to scroll a graphics screen - you used the SCROLL command).
BASIC has the easiest learning curve (and if you already know BASIC, no learning curve). There are scads of books on BASIC available (some of the best are the oldest - having listings of Wumpus and Star Trek is fun). Tons of code for all other kinds of BASIC exist on the net (check out the All Basic Code Archives if you are interested in what BASIC can do in good hands).
It is more than possible to program games in some dialect of BASIC today, provided it is a good dialect (even VB - couple it with OpenGL, DirectX, or some other engine, like Genesis, and you could easily make a kicking 3D game. I do know that a few people have done this - in fact, one guy had a dungeon crawl using a custom OpenGL engine and VB, called Mordor 2, later the name was changed when Black Isle Studios picked him up to develop it, they later dropped him, but he still develops it - fun multiplayer network RPG, in 3D, done in VB).
There are several free, open-source compilers for Linux, a couple for using under X as well. Many allow hooks to C and ASM, if you want it.
I will never understand why BASIC is knocked so much nowadays - you would think programmers would know better. It isn't a be-all end-all tool. But in a way, it is close.
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
You're not, AC - if this is how it works, it doesn't sound that safe. I would much rather the process is a user process, and root has to go in every now and then and manually run the update, selecting which packages to update. Maybe the system uses sudo or similar to give access to a user process only to certain areas - who knows?
What I don't understand, if the original poster of this thread is correct, is why someone at said "client" doesn't just set up a single server (and a single license with RedHat), set up for free updates, then use that machine to update all the other machines on the network running a copy of RedHat (it isn't necessary for each machine to auto update - talk about a waste of bandwidth)? This shouldn't be that difficult to set up, and bypasses the monthly fee - right?
Hey, I am all for RedHat to make money - and I agree that this is a value added service, and should be charged for. No problems here with that. But they better hope their normal business users are all dumb, or have incompetent admins (running Linux - hah - probably some MCSE who picked up a book on RedHat and now thinks he knows something - that or a management type trying to get ahead)...
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Your idea, my implementation idea, hopefully will show prior art when someone tries to patent it.
Anyhow...
Imagine if the "tarp" was made with black colored Tyvek, and on the roll were two layers (like toilet paper), however, along the length of the roll the Tyvek is "bonded" (however they do this process - heat?) in a wavy back-and-forth across the length, so that a "tube" is formed. Cut at the right place, and you have an inlet and outlet for the water. Hook up the water system and go...
Of course, all of this supposes one thing - Tyvek won't rot in the sun and weather. Not sure how well it would stand up in such conditions, pressurized with water. Perhaps another material could be used, like PVC or PEC?
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Ack! I feel for your chaos (or, maybe it isn't chaotical (?) for you)...
Anyhow, that line is what I am wanting to stave off, the point where I can't transport my bookmarks via floppy and have to start zipping them, then finally emailing them - until there are too many to email...
One thing I noticed when I was reorganizing my bookmarks, that I had a fair amount of duplicates, scattered all over the place. This was from creating a bookmark in multiple places, due to it being able to fit into multiple categories - thus, a bookmark to the Livid site might actually fall under "computers/software/video/linux", as well as "computers/hardware/dvd" or some such. This inability to cross reference bookmarks is something I hope to overcome with my code using categorical meta-tags on the bookmarks, coupled with a search engine - so you can browse the categories ala Yahoo, or search them instead. It is a VERY complicated system that I am still designing, in order to make it as easy as possible for me to code it.
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
You are going through this too? Information junkie, I suppose? Perhaps like me?
/. and k5.
I have over 500K of bookmarks, and it grows by a few bookmarks every day. While I don't know if this is a "record" number of bookmarks for an individual, I can surely tell you it is an insane number.
I use Netscape on both my home PCs and my work PC, and in order to keep the chaos down, and keep my bookmarks up to date, the system I currently use is this:
I only add bookmarks when I am at work. When I find a site at home that I want to bookmark, I email the address to my work, and bookmark it there. Almost every day I copy the bookmarks (with a script) from my work box to a floppy, and take them home. At home I run a script to copy them from the floppy to Netscape. The script also makes a copy to my shared samba area so that the Windows PCs can get to the links.
This has worked out well, but it was frustrating to update the links this way. It has been even more of a problem organizing that many links. I recently spent a couple of days reorganizing the links to make them "fit" better, and be more hierarchical to find them better, but it still isn't what I want. My solution?
I am going to write my own bookmark CGI (in PERL - which I am learning as I work on it), and host it off a small webserver from my cable connection. While such sites (as mentioned prior) do exist that does this, that is way too much information to allow just anybody to have access too (do you really want people to know all your favorite browsing areas?).
My goal is to create this system to allow a few security levels, like Admin, Trusted User, User, and Guest, and put in the links database what level can view what - ie, a link marked as User could be viewed by someone with Trusted User and Admin Access, but not by Guests. I would have logins and passwords - so I could give out access to friends. I would be able to access the server from nearly anywhere, on any machine. With admin access, I will be able to add links, move links, delete links, change links, do all that with users and privilege levels, etc. Maybe even have templates to customise the look of the site - maybe add "news of the day", and clip headlines from
Yeah, I checked freshmeat for such systems, and found a few, but none had the security options - most seemed tailored for a "free-for-all" type situation, with the ability to do remote maintenance, but no way to limit viewability of links. I plan on my system to be different, and much more flexible.
It is a big task, and not suited for everybody, but it is the road I am going down, to preserve my sanity!
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Great ideas - I would like to add that I have seen this sort of stuff done in VERY VERY old copies of Byte magazine, most notably in Ciacia's Circuit Cellar portion. If you have the skills and the time, you can do this cheap.
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Thanks for the info - I don't plan on selling, my actual goal is to get NS to sign both of them, and keep them.
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
I have no idea where Heiserman went, but if he did anything interesting it should be out there, either on the web or in Gopher space. I think I'll have a look later tonight. I'll report back if I find anythin!
Actually, finding anything about any of the 70's and 80's robot makers is near impossible, in my experience. Recently, I found what happened to Ben Skora, and his robot AROK - they both were featured on a home show recently about "strange" homes (Ben lives in this weird UFO shaped house he built in the early 70's - complete with all the disco era trimmings - you know automated lights and entertainment, that kind of thing). Apparently AROK is still around.
There are other robots whose whereabouts are completely unknown - one that I was always curious on was named C.H.A.R.L.I.E. (an acronym that means something, I forget what, but his inventor was also named Charlie, I believe). There are many others from the time. I just tend to wonder what happened to them...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
I was younger when I first read the books, and didn't have anywhere near enough money (or skill) to try to build one. When I got older, and managed to find and buy the books (no mean feat, those kind of TAB books you grab when you see them, no waiting), it was clear from reading them (knowing you have the skills now) that it would cost more to build either device than it would be worth in the end.
But by having all three, and seeing how simple Rodney is sensor-wise (I think all it has, IIRC, is some bump sensors, and some current-draw sensors on the motors - maybe a sound and light sensor), was that you could wire it all up to a cheap 486 laptop, and use the code from "Robot Intelligence" to achieve the same device, but cheaper.
Such is progress...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
I have two copies of the book, one in fully readable condition, and one "strange". I assume the "strange" one to be due to a publishing error, but I wonder how many got out of the publisher, and how many were kept (ie, not returned)?
Anyhow, my GF got the book for me a couple of xmases ago. She bought it off Amazon, and when I received it, I immediately began reading it. About a third of the way through, the book "repeated" - I thought I was losing my mind, but the text did repeat. I scanned farther forward, and it "repeated" again, never getting more than 50-75 pages "forward". I think there was a production problem, and multiple "leaves"(? Can't remember what the individual page bundles are called in publishing) got inserted. Funny thing was, the bundles weren't from near the end of the area I was at, but instead were from the mid-beginning, from a point I was well past.
Anyhow, it made the book unreadable, so I had my GF ask for another from Amazon - they complied, but never asked for the original back in return. I just wonder how unique it is...?
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
I should've posted that link myself - I have a link to it, but they are widely seperated in my bookmarks (the LCDProc thing is under Linux-Hardware, while the other LCD stuff is under something like Vendors-New-Hardware-Electronics-LCDs).
Arggh! I hate these bookmarks! I have in mind to create a web server for hosting my bookmark collection, so I can add-change-delete bookmarks at will, anywhere on the net, and give permissions and access to others, etc (I have a ton of ideas for this here). I have around 500k (!) of bookmarks, and I want to search them, shown by rating into categories, so as to allow links to be cross-category indexed and such.
BTW, on the LCDProc thing - has anyone written a driver/interface to display data from the LRP (or an LRP distro)? I am going to soon be building such a box, and having that kind of a panel on the front would really make the box perfect.
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
I haven't read the book mentioned in the article, but I have read (and played with the programs contained in it) a much earlier book, published in 1981 by TAB Books, called "Robot Intelligence (with experiments)" by David L. Heiserman (TAB Books, 1981, ISBN 0-8306-9685-7).
In this book, the author explores ideas and meanings behind a type of life he calls "Evolutionay Adaptive Machine Intelligence" or EAMI for short. He explores this through a number of BASIC code programs written in stages, from simple "Alpha-class" systems, to much more complex "Gamma-class" systems.
What makes this book all the more interesting is that in theory (and I believe this is explored somewhat in the book) you can apply all of this back to real-world machines: This book is simply the culmination of two earlier robotics project books by the same author: "Build Your Own Working Robot" (TAB Books, 1976, ISBN 0-8306-6841-1) and "How to Build Your Own Self-Programming Robot" (TAB Books, 1979, ISBN 0-8306-9760-8). This last book actually started to explore the concepts outlined in "Robot Intelligence", but stopped just short of it. The point is, this series of books showed the hobbiest of a couple of decades ago (thereabouts) how to build real ALife, long before it was very popular (not to mention cheap).
I encourage anyone with interest in this subject to pick these three books up. As far as I know, they are long out of print, so happy hunting.
In a side note - does anyone know what happened to Mr. Heiserman and his robots?
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