One guy I have talked with who is supposed to be getting one of these boxes lives in Argentina - and he says the PAL standard there is different from the European standard. I haven't been able to find anything that says whether the PAL standard on the box will work in Argentina. Does anyone have any experience with this?
I have given it some thought, but the whole reasoning behind going with an open source, Free OS was so my contact could sell off his boxes, without the Liberate/VxWorks stuff on board (he said it was because of contractual reasons/licensing concerns). However, maybe getting that demo to work would be good - if we can get it onto a hard drive - and transfer it over to the flash ram (the device doesn't have a floppy drive - except for some funky one that plugs into the parallel port, which I haven't seen yet)...
Thanks for the info - would you care to write up something I could stick in the FAQ - or could I just pop what you wrote in? This is definitely going to have to be something I try later on.
I guess why people think only a dual-NIC solution will work is because people are used to thinking in terms of "pipes" - forgetting that it can go both ways on a network. A one NIC firewall/router - now I am definitely going to have to set one up...
I saw about four MicroVaxen (I don't know if they were the II or not - big boxes, though) down at Apache Reclamation here in Phoenix. They were all wrapped in plastic, and looked nearly brand new. On top of each was what I guess was a system console - a TRS-80 Model IV...
I wished I could have bought one of those, but at the time I was in an apartment, and it would've taken up my entire office. That, and the fact that I had no way to unload it off my truck...
From what I understand (and I haven't had a chance to verify it yet), if you boot it with it plugged into a TV only, it will activate the TV, otherwise only the monitor is activated only.
Also, when using the monitor, yes - you can view TV signals (so yeah, I guess this would be a way of using your monitor as a TV)...
If you want to do it for the challenge, knock yourself out.
When I bought this box, I was on the Webplayer coop list - I thought getting one of those would be fun. But after purchasing this box, and seeing nobody doing anything on it - I decided not to get a webplayer (and they recently had a problem with paypal - so maybe it was for the better), and look into what this box can do.
Yeah, it's cheesy - you can't put it in the bathroom easily. But that isn't what it was designed for! It was designed to go with your TV. To act as a smart terminal for a backend server, dishing out a funky version of html (that has, for example, tags to control the TV window size and position, in addition to others) - to bring about a form of interactive TV.
Basically, what would happen is the user of the box would turn on the box, and his cable service. The program that was on would have special data in the VBI of the video (same area as closed captioning), that would cause the box to go to one of the servers and get one of these special HTML documents. The HTML would cause the custom browser to "frame" or overlay the video with the web page information, that could be navigated as the program progressed. The video program could control the box, and the user could control the box as well. So, it was a two way interaction.
You don't need much power for that.
This box has the power of around a p75. Think outside the box, here - a P75 is a lot for this type of thing.
I remember when a p75 was a high-end machine (and a good 486 was over $1000)! Come on, people...
Well, there is a table silk-screened on the motherboard that seems to indicated bus speed settings in some way, but there aren't any jumpers. You should be able to see this table on the scan of the main PCB, near the processor (I believe).
Heck - I just took a good look and realized that the tables don't turn out at all - going to have to fix that. Basically, there are a few tables silk-screened on the board. One indicates some settings that seem to be related to bus speed settings (like a jumper setting table), but there aren't any jumpers near the processor to mod. It is either some kind of settings that are done with solder jumping, or in a special hidden area in the BIOS...
Supposedly, though (I haven't tried this yet myself - Chris Healy has), it plays MP3s well, just like it is, without overclocking. Maybe it is the MP3 files he is using - I had built an MP3 player for my truck, using an AMD 586/133, and I had to OC it as well to get it to play MP3s nicely.
Maybe this machine is architected slightly differently to alleviate the issue?
Yeah - this is what I have looked into - but I am really interested in doing the same stuff as the current Liberate software - that is, a small OS, with a small (but highly functional) internet browser. I figure you could possibly set up an LRP type system, then throw Lynx on it - but I would like to see something more graphical. I am sure it can be done (one promising source that I found was a distro called TVLinux - I have a link on the site).
It's too bad these boxes couldn't be used as a router/firewall of some type - you can only put in one NIC. But they can be used like they were designed - I am just wondering why there isn't more embeddable Linux stuff (TVLinux is the one promising thing - but they ask sooo much for the distribution - but if they can do, others can too).
I haven't seen, heard or experienced any issues with system performance. Would an MP3 player even work if this was the case (or the Nintendo or Sega emulators)? I would think you would see a problem with these type programs...
From what I understand, the boxes that people currently have all have NICs in them - no modem. The were meant to use either. The units do have the smartcard slot. Liberate will not give any info or support in the form of the flashing utilities.
You say you have one of these boxes - do you mean an actual Acer NT-150, or a similar box? If you have an NT-150 running Linux, are you running it from flash, or a hard drive? Where did you get yours? Email me, please!
Actually, you wouldn't believe how much this box has been opened and fiddled with since I got it - no problems yet. This machine is actually a pretty solid box.
Don't worry about actually buying one of these from Acer - it is unlikely you will even be able to get them to admit that they make them. It took me over a month to get an answer from Acer Taiwan that basically said "get your support elsewhere".
I would imagine that unless you waved a ton of money in their face, and ordered several thousand of the boxes, you wouldn't get anywhere...
Shoehorning a running Linux system into a 4 meg flash ram is certainly not pedestrian. We haven't done it yet - but perhaps someday we will. Then, of course, you have to get some kind of application and networking going...
It doesn't make a bad MP3 player at all - and it makes a decent platform of Sega Genesis and Nintendo emus.
It doesn't have a floppy (well, actually it does, in a way - read the FAQ on what info I have on it), but you can hook up an IDE hard drive easily enough - and there is the 4 meg of flash (once you can get access to it, that is).
No, you won't be able to build a Tivo - but that wasn't the reason for this device - it was meant to supply interactive TV. Think ASP-type applications - that is where the power of this box is...
One could say it is old hardware. But the fact is that they were manufactured in 1998, but they haven't really been deployed. You wouldn't believe the tight grip the companies involved have on this thing, with regard to specifications and settings. There are still several jumpers on the main PCB that no one knows what they do, or what thier purpose is.
Acer won't tell me anything - only to say that such information would be "very expensive" for an individual.
Liberate wasn't forthcoming at all.
Neither of these companies would tell me, or sell me, squat. All of the information obtained has come from other sources and my own experimentation.
Actually, it is almost understandable - you see, I wasn't supposed to have gotten one of those boxes through "outside" channels. I got mine off of Ebay (for much less than $100 - the $100 figure is based on ideas me and my contact have been throwing around). From what I understand, they aren't available from the guy I bought mine from anymore (he sold his last one a while back - at least, that is what he told me).
Could you build a Tivo with one of these? No, unlikely. But think about what can be done...
Sure, it is only a souped up 486, but it can play MP3s. Chris Healy has done this, and he has also gotten Nintendo and Sega emulators running on it as well. This thing is meant to use an embedded OS - a small, fast, and preferably real-time OS. Think small applications - things that don't tax the CPU. The "built in" browser software is actually pretty powerful - if you could get one of these boxes with the OS and browser on it, your could set up a WebTV type box for doing any number of things - set up a "proxy server" to browse through on another box, and supply the funky HTML it uses (detailed on the Liberate site), and you could do some pretty cool X-10 control stuff (I can think of a way to do an X-10 wireless camera control system, with the video in the corner, and the controls arranged around it). Or, you could set it up to be a "WebTV" type system for others, using any ISP you want.
That is just with the built in software - put in your own OS and software, and you can do almost anything. The point is not to think of this thing as a general purpose PC type system...
What has me excited about it, is the fact that supposedly Acer distributed over 50,000 of these boxes. So where are they? Why haven't they been deployed? Are they just waiting for the right time? If not, will they just be put in a landfill? Will they flood on the surplus market in the near future?
AOLTV uses a similar product, but it is more powerful, and not made by Acer (I am not even sure if it is PC compatible in any way). I think these set-top boxes are going to be a big thing, in the near future. Maybe I will be wrong - but a lot of time, money and energy has been put in place by a lot of major players recently (and almost quietly, I might add).
So - think small. Think of the device as a front-end device, not a do-it-all box. Think ASP like applications - what can be done?
A Palm Pilot or similar device (ie, portable handheld scanning wedges) do have a good use, during the inventory checking - you can just scan the books as you walk down the aisles (as long as the barcode is on the spine). Such a device would become a portable data logging system for the inventory tracking.
Seems like there are a few open source CRM packages out there. This is a good thing to see.
My current job has involved the design and implementation of one CRM package (alas, not open source - and done in VB with an Access back-end - actually, it works pretty well, overall, but if I had to do it over, I would probably go with Python or Java, and MySQL on the backend), and currently working on the "conversion" of another, slightly different one.
I can give these words of advice: If you are looking for such a package, look for a "pre-done" one - in other words, don't attempt to roll your own, unless you like headaches. While it may seem like a CRM system is simple, the users will make it anything but. Most of the time, what you or I think as the proper, most efficient way to do things, will probably not be what the users will end up wanting (for example, I had a function where you would open the job, but before you could do much of anything on the job, you had to enter in estimated time, then submit it to the client for approval - ie, a signoff. When you got the signed job back, this was an "authorized" job. Then work could begin. As a programmer, I have always experienced clients who would look at a job's estimated time, say OK - then when billed, would say "I didn't authorize that!", and not pay, or do something equally stupid. This was an attempt at doing a little CYA. Nonetheless, nobody uses it in the way it was intended).
Will using a pre-done package alleviate this? No, but it will keep you from burning the midnight oil as you try to modify the package six ways from Sunday...
Of course, I guess they could always come back with "But you have the source, why can't you modify it?"...
I remember back in high school (I went to BHS in Bakersfield, CA). The high school itself is rather old, over 100 years now. It was originally the community college, and a few of the buildings date to this time.
My friend and I never explored the place, as it was way too easy to get caught, and many doors were welded shut, but there were plenty of spaces just begging to be explored. I remember in one building (the oldest, that housed the library and "study" hall), stairs led down past the basement classrooms, and at the end of the stairs were doors that opened outward (!), but had no door handles (!!) - wonder why?
I was told by my chemistry teacher that between that building and the science building (the newest building on the campus, built in the 60's), used to be tunnels that connected the two, and in the middle (aboveground was a very large field) was an irradiation lab - but it had since been filled in.
Other areas were what had to be some kind of tunnel system under the park area between the industrial hall and Warren hall, because there was this large blue capped pipe, surrounded by a small stone wall - it was a vent pipe of some kind. I remember seeing the phone company running cabling in it, so it was some kind of access tunnel. There was also, near the principal's office area, a large concrete cover thing, with a welded trap door on top, and "vents" along the edges. It was only a couple of feet tall, and stair-stepped shaped, of two layers.
Our auditorium was a WPA project - massive concrete work - walls three feet thick in areas. Of course, all over campus were bomb shelter signs, as most of the buildings had basements.
I remember going to a night class, just for the heck of it (not like I needed the grade or anything) - it was woodshop. Our "final" consisted of cleaning up and old storage area, of unfinished projects. Sawdust a foot thick at our feet had to be swept out. Then we got to organize the projects. Old desks, chairs, various other creations... One desk we opened, patterned off an old-time school desk, had a "How to Survive the Bomb" Red Cross pamphlet, from the 50's in it!
Now I live in Phoenix, Arizona - we have an old VA hospital, still in use, at the corner of 7th Street and Indian School Road. One time I was in the area looking for a job, and I wandered in (my GF was working in an adjacent area at the time). I managed to get down to the very basement of the hospital - a steam tunnel like area, very errie, very low light - and very interesting. I was approached by a guard, but made up an excuse, and got out of there. On subsequent days (after job hunts), I tried to get to the mental ward on the third floor, but the elevator kept skipping the floor as a security precaution. I couldn't find the stairs to it...
I am sure there are other areas to explore in the Phoenix area (that aren't abandoned mines - those you want to stay clear of) - I keep thinking the Westward Ho might hold interesting areas, as well as other parts of downtown...
Me an a couple other people are experimenting with the Acer NT-150 (details at www.phoenixgarage.net) - now, this box was never sold to consumers, but it has basically turned out to be a set-top box based around an AMD 586/133 - one of the guys (Chris Healy) has managed to set up a system to play MP3s and run Nintendo and Sega emulators, but I don't think it will have anywhere enough power to run DVDs, let alone VCD movies (which I am thinking about trying).
But you might try an AOLTV box - it is supposedly more powerful (pentium something or another), and maybe hackable as well. Of course, getting one without a subscription might prove challenging...
You could buy a three tube CRT projector off of EBAY, and mount it to the ceiling (involves a bit of work to mount properly and safely - those things are HEAVY!). Such a projector can be had on EBAY for about $400.00-600.00 US (shipping though, can easily reach and exceed $200.00). If work needs to be done on it, a competent shop or technician can do it for you relatively cheaply. All in all, you can get such a setup, displaying 100" screen sizes and larger, for much less than an LCD projector (for which a good one starts at about $3000.00, and then the sky is the limit). Most of the 3 tube projectors allow seperate R, G, B inputs and sync inputs, so setting up a PC is no problem (though the res might not be the best).
I have to say, though - if you can get a good LCD projector, they are amazing to watch - I watched a video demo (actually help set it up - the screen, mainly - 12 feet tall!) during a pulse jet demo SRL recently put on here in Phoenix (for their forever upcoming show) - great res, nice and bright - huge picture (still, even with all that, it didn't do justice to a real SRL event)...
I started thinking - surfing for porn, and getting paid - must be for blocking software. But doesn't it seem a little disturbing that there are people who say "Yeah! I could get a job surfing for porn, so that it will be blocked by Company X's software - Gawd, I hate looking at porn, but THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!" - I mean, doesn't this sound a little "Jeckle and Hydish"? How can you be repulsed by something, but still take a job doing it...unless you really aren't repulsed by it, right? But then, the dilemma is that you are working to subvert your own interests... Or is that the reason - you like it (porn), but you feel you must do this to "cleanse yourself of evil" - to be forgiven.
There is a name for that kind of behavior, and it isn't sanity...
While this is certainly funny, and I wish I could mod it up further, the original first use of a vocoder in music was done by the Alan Parsons Project around 1976 or so (does anyone remember the album/track - I can't remember if it was Stereotomy, or Tales/Raven)...
If I read this correctly, it seems as if you have never actually sat down and read an actual Playboy in your life! Had you actually done so you would have found:
* Interviews (with many interesting people) * Advice Columns (where people ask and receive answers for a variety of things, such as sex advice, dating advice, advice on electronics purchases, etc) * General articles on a variety of topics: Literacy, freedom, rights, current events, and many other items of interest * And oh yeah, in the middle, about 20 pages of very tactful, and artfully done, nude imagery (no sex, very tastful)
This is Playboy! I constantly hear and see women scoffing about it, saying it is all porn, and that is all the men look at, but over 90 percent of the magazine has nothing to do with nude imagery. I would venture 80 percent has nothing to do with sex, either! There really is a lot of worthwhile reading in Playboy...
Had you have mentioned Hustler, or Club, or one of those other, lesser known magazine, I would be more inclined to agree (but hey, even Hustler has good articles). I am certain there are magazines out there that would shock the hell out of you (a trip to an adult "bookstore" can be a very enlightening thing), but Playboy should not fall into this category...
This was about 10 years ago - I remember a kid in my English class who would sit in the back, and basically draw. He tended to get good grades in the class, even though he didn't take notes and such. I once asked him what he was drawing (I could see he was drawing something, but that was it).
Big mistake.
He handed the paper to me, and on it was a cartoon character of his own design, of basically a guy hanging from a noose in a tree, but only the head in the noose. Below the head was a lifeless body, and a chainsaw nearby. Everything was "covered" in blood (he used a red pen for this). He pulled out other pages, and they were all variations on this theme...
I guess if then was today, he would be locked away in a padded room (I never actually saw him commit any violent act, not even uttering a cuss word - to this day, though, those images remain disturbing).
Imagine that you could get your employer to pay you "under the table" in cash - they wouldn't have to take out taxes (and thus, you wouldn't have to file - but if you have been filing all along, continue to file as a "below the poverty line" type deal, then slowly stop filing - because if you don't make any [reported] money, you don't have to file). Then, figure out a way to fake your own death - and become a "non-person".
True - it would be tough living this way (very tough) - but legally, you wouldn't exist anymore as a person! And in today's society, this is rapidly becoming something worth pursuing...
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One guy I have talked with who is supposed to be getting one of these boxes lives in Argentina - and he says the PAL standard there is different from the European standard. I haven't been able to find anything that says whether the PAL standard on the box will work in Argentina. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
I have given it some thought, but the whole reasoning behind going with an open source, Free OS was so my contact could sell off his boxes, without the Liberate/VxWorks stuff on board (he said it was because of contractual reasons/licensing concerns). However, maybe getting that demo to work would be good - if we can get it onto a hard drive - and transfer it over to the flash ram (the device doesn't have a floppy drive - except for some funky one that plugs into the parallel port, which I haven't seen yet)...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Thanks for the info - would you care to write up something I could stick in the FAQ - or could I just pop what you wrote in? This is definitely going to have to be something I try later on.
I guess why people think only a dual-NIC solution will work is because people are used to thinking in terms of "pipes" - forgetting that it can go both ways on a network. A one NIC firewall/router - now I am definitely going to have to set one up...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
I saw about four MicroVaxen (I don't know if they were the II or not - big boxes, though) down at Apache Reclamation here in Phoenix. They were all wrapped in plastic, and looked nearly brand new. On top of each was what I guess was a system console - a TRS-80 Model IV...
I wished I could have bought one of those, but at the time I was in an apartment, and it would've taken up my entire office. That, and the fact that I had no way to unload it off my truck...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
From what I understand (and I haven't had a chance to verify it yet), if you boot it with it plugged into a TV only, it will activate the TV, otherwise only the monitor is activated only.
Also, when using the monitor, yes - you can view TV signals (so yeah, I guess this would be a way of using your monitor as a TV)...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
If you want to do it for the challenge, knock yourself out.
When I bought this box, I was on the Webplayer coop list - I thought getting one of those would be fun. But after purchasing this box, and seeing nobody doing anything on it - I decided not to get a webplayer (and they recently had a problem with paypal - so maybe it was for the better), and look into what this box can do.
Yeah, it's cheesy - you can't put it in the bathroom easily. But that isn't what it was designed for! It was designed to go with your TV. To act as a smart terminal for a backend server, dishing out a funky version of html (that has, for example, tags to control the TV window size and position, in addition to others) - to bring about a form of interactive TV.
Basically, what would happen is the user of the box would turn on the box, and his cable service. The program that was on would have special data in the VBI of the video (same area as closed captioning), that would cause the box to go to one of the servers and get one of these special HTML documents. The HTML would cause the custom browser to "frame" or overlay the video with the web page information, that could be navigated as the program progressed. The video program could control the box, and the user could control the box as well. So, it was a two way interaction.
You don't need much power for that.
This box has the power of around a p75. Think outside the box, here - a P75 is a lot for this type of thing.
I remember when a p75 was a high-end machine (and a good 486 was over $1000)! Come on, people...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
I am the owner of the site - no, I have nothing to do with the Ebay listing. I wouldn't stoop so low to do the kind of thing you are suggesting.
The wording may look similar, but I assure everybody that I don't have ANYTHING to do with the Ebay auction...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
How do you do this? Do you have links on where I could find out more about this? It might not be an ideal use, but it would be an interesting use...
Thanks...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Well, there is a table silk-screened on the motherboard that seems to indicated bus speed settings in some way, but there aren't any jumpers. You should be able to see this table on the scan of the main PCB, near the processor (I believe).
Heck - I just took a good look and realized that the tables don't turn out at all - going to have to fix that. Basically, there are a few tables silk-screened on the board. One indicates some settings that seem to be related to bus speed settings (like a jumper setting table), but there aren't any jumpers near the processor to mod. It is either some kind of settings that are done with solder jumping, or in a special hidden area in the BIOS...
Supposedly, though (I haven't tried this yet myself - Chris Healy has), it plays MP3s well, just like it is, without overclocking. Maybe it is the MP3 files he is using - I had built an MP3 player for my truck, using an AMD 586/133, and I had to OC it as well to get it to play MP3s nicely.
Maybe this machine is architected slightly differently to alleviate the issue?
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Yeah - this is what I have looked into - but I am really interested in doing the same stuff as the current Liberate software - that is, a small OS, with a small (but highly functional) internet browser. I figure you could possibly set up an LRP type system, then throw Lynx on it - but I would like to see something more graphical. I am sure it can be done (one promising source that I found was a distro called TVLinux - I have a link on the site).
It's too bad these boxes couldn't be used as a router/firewall of some type - you can only put in one NIC. But they can be used like they were designed - I am just wondering why there isn't more embeddable Linux stuff (TVLinux is the one promising thing - but they ask sooo much for the distribution - but if they can do, others can too).
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
I haven't seen, heard or experienced any issues with system performance. Would an MP3 player even work if this was the case (or the Nintendo or Sega emulators)? I would think you would see a problem with these type programs...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
From what I understand, the boxes that people currently have all have NICs in them - no modem. The were meant to use either. The units do have the smartcard slot. Liberate will not give any info or support in the form of the flashing utilities.
You say you have one of these boxes - do you mean an actual Acer NT-150, or a similar box? If you have an NT-150 running Linux, are you running it from flash, or a hard drive? Where did you get yours? Email me, please!
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Actually, you wouldn't believe how much this box has been opened and fiddled with since I got it - no problems yet. This machine is actually a pretty solid box.
Don't worry about actually buying one of these from Acer - it is unlikely you will even be able to get them to admit that they make them. It took me over a month to get an answer from Acer Taiwan that basically said "get your support elsewhere".
I would imagine that unless you waved a ton of money in their face, and ordered several thousand of the boxes, you wouldn't get anywhere...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Shoehorning a running Linux system into a 4 meg flash ram is certainly not pedestrian. We haven't done it yet - but perhaps someday we will. Then, of course, you have to get some kind of application and networking going...
It doesn't make a bad MP3 player at all - and it makes a decent platform of Sega Genesis and Nintendo emus.
It doesn't have a floppy (well, actually it does, in a way - read the FAQ on what info I have on it), but you can hook up an IDE hard drive easily enough - and there is the 4 meg of flash (once you can get access to it, that is).
No, you won't be able to build a Tivo - but that wasn't the reason for this device - it was meant to supply interactive TV. Think ASP-type applications - that is where the power of this box is...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
This is my site.
One could say it is old hardware. But the fact is that they were manufactured in 1998, but they haven't really been deployed. You wouldn't believe the tight grip the companies involved have on this thing, with regard to specifications and settings. There are still several jumpers on the main PCB that no one knows what they do, or what thier purpose is.
Acer won't tell me anything - only to say that such information would be "very expensive" for an individual.
Liberate wasn't forthcoming at all.
Neither of these companies would tell me, or sell me, squat. All of the information obtained has come from other sources and my own experimentation.
Actually, it is almost understandable - you see, I wasn't supposed to have gotten one of those boxes through "outside" channels. I got mine off of Ebay (for much less than $100 - the $100 figure is based on ideas me and my contact have been throwing around). From what I understand, they aren't available from the guy I bought mine from anymore (he sold his last one a while back - at least, that is what he told me).
Could you build a Tivo with one of these? No, unlikely. But think about what can be done...
Sure, it is only a souped up 486, but it can play MP3s. Chris Healy has done this, and he has also gotten Nintendo and Sega emulators running on it as well. This thing is meant to use an embedded OS - a small, fast, and preferably real-time OS. Think small applications - things that don't tax the CPU. The "built in" browser software is actually pretty powerful - if you could get one of these boxes with the OS and browser on it, your could set up a WebTV type box for doing any number of things - set up a "proxy server" to browse through on another box, and supply the funky HTML it uses (detailed on the Liberate site), and you could do some pretty cool X-10 control stuff (I can think of a way to do an X-10 wireless camera control system, with the video in the corner, and the controls arranged around it). Or, you could set it up to be a "WebTV" type system for others, using any ISP you want.
That is just with the built in software - put in your own OS and software, and you can do almost anything. The point is not to think of this thing as a general purpose PC type system...
What has me excited about it, is the fact that supposedly Acer distributed over 50,000 of these boxes. So where are they? Why haven't they been deployed? Are they just waiting for the right time? If not, will they just be put in a landfill? Will they flood on the surplus market in the near future?
AOLTV uses a similar product, but it is more powerful, and not made by Acer (I am not even sure if it is PC compatible in any way). I think these set-top boxes are going to be a big thing, in the near future. Maybe I will be wrong - but a lot of time, money and energy has been put in place by a lot of major players recently (and almost quietly, I might add).
So - think small. Think of the device as a front-end device, not a do-it-all box. Think ASP like applications - what can be done?
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
A Palm Pilot or similar device (ie, portable handheld scanning wedges) do have a good use, during the inventory checking - you can just scan the books as you walk down the aisles (as long as the barcode is on the spine). Such a device would become a portable data logging system for the inventory tracking.
May be a bit expensive, though...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Seems like there are a few open source CRM packages out there. This is a good thing to see.
My current job has involved the design and implementation of one CRM package (alas, not open source - and done in VB with an Access back-end - actually, it works pretty well, overall, but if I had to do it over, I would probably go with Python or Java, and MySQL on the backend), and currently working on the "conversion" of another, slightly different one.
I can give these words of advice: If you are looking for such a package, look for a "pre-done" one - in other words, don't attempt to roll your own, unless you like headaches. While it may seem like a CRM system is simple, the users will make it anything but. Most of the time, what you or I think as the proper, most efficient way to do things, will probably not be what the users will end up wanting (for example, I had a function where you would open the job, but before you could do much of anything on the job, you had to enter in estimated time, then submit it to the client for approval - ie, a signoff. When you got the signed job back, this was an "authorized" job. Then work could begin. As a programmer, I have always experienced clients who would look at a job's estimated time, say OK - then when billed, would say "I didn't authorize that!", and not pay, or do something equally stupid. This was an attempt at doing a little CYA. Nonetheless, nobody uses it in the way it was intended).
Will using a pre-done package alleviate this? No, but it will keep you from burning the midnight oil as you try to modify the package six ways from Sunday...
Of course, I guess they could always come back with "But you have the source, why can't you modify it?"...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
I remember back in high school (I went to BHS in Bakersfield, CA). The high school itself is rather old, over 100 years now. It was originally the community college, and a few of the buildings date to this time.
My friend and I never explored the place, as it was way too easy to get caught, and many doors were welded shut, but there were plenty of spaces just begging to be explored. I remember in one building (the oldest, that housed the library and "study" hall), stairs led down past the basement classrooms, and at the end of the stairs were doors that opened outward (!), but had no door handles (!!) - wonder why?
I was told by my chemistry teacher that between that building and the science building (the newest building on the campus, built in the 60's), used to be tunnels that connected the two, and in the middle (aboveground was a very large field) was an irradiation lab - but it had since been filled in.
Other areas were what had to be some kind of tunnel system under the park area between the industrial hall and Warren hall, because there was this large blue capped pipe, surrounded by a small stone wall - it was a vent pipe of some kind. I remember seeing the phone company running cabling in it, so it was some kind of access tunnel. There was also, near the principal's office area, a large concrete cover thing, with a welded trap door on top, and "vents" along the edges. It was only a couple of feet tall, and stair-stepped shaped, of two layers.
Our auditorium was a WPA project - massive concrete work - walls three feet thick in areas. Of course, all over campus were bomb shelter signs, as most of the buildings had basements.
I remember going to a night class, just for the heck of it (not like I needed the grade or anything) - it was woodshop. Our "final" consisted of cleaning up and old storage area, of unfinished projects. Sawdust a foot thick at our feet had to be swept out. Then we got to organize the projects. Old desks, chairs, various other creations... One desk we opened, patterned off an old-time school desk, had a "How to Survive the Bomb" Red Cross pamphlet, from the 50's in it!
Now I live in Phoenix, Arizona - we have an old VA hospital, still in use, at the corner of 7th Street and Indian School Road. One time I was in the area looking for a job, and I wandered in (my GF was working in an adjacent area at the time). I managed to get down to the very basement of the hospital - a steam tunnel like area, very errie, very low light - and very interesting. I was approached by a guard, but made up an excuse, and got out of there. On subsequent days (after job hunts), I tried to get to the mental ward on the third floor, but the elevator kept skipping the floor as a security precaution. I couldn't find the stairs to it...
I am sure there are other areas to explore in the Phoenix area (that aren't abandoned mines - those you want to stay clear of) - I keep thinking the Westward Ho might hold interesting areas, as well as other parts of downtown...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Me an a couple other people are experimenting with the Acer NT-150 (details at www.phoenixgarage.net) - now, this box was never sold to consumers, but it has basically turned out to be a set-top box based around an AMD 586/133 - one of the guys (Chris Healy) has managed to set up a system to play MP3s and run Nintendo and Sega emulators, but I don't think it will have anywhere enough power to run DVDs, let alone VCD movies (which I am thinking about trying).
But you might try an AOLTV box - it is supposedly more powerful (pentium something or another), and maybe hackable as well. Of course, getting one without a subscription might prove challenging...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
You could buy a three tube CRT projector off of EBAY, and mount it to the ceiling (involves a bit of work to mount properly and safely - those things are HEAVY!). Such a projector can be had on EBAY for about $400.00-600.00 US (shipping though, can easily reach and exceed $200.00). If work needs to be done on it, a competent shop or technician can do it for you relatively cheaply. All in all, you can get such a setup, displaying 100" screen sizes and larger, for much less than an LCD projector (for which a good one starts at about $3000.00, and then the sky is the limit). Most of the 3 tube projectors allow seperate R, G, B inputs and sync inputs, so setting up a PC is no problem (though the res might not be the best).
I have to say, though - if you can get a good LCD projector, they are amazing to watch - I watched a video demo (actually help set it up - the screen, mainly - 12 feet tall!) during a pulse jet demo SRL recently put on here in Phoenix (for their forever upcoming show) - great res, nice and bright - huge picture (still, even with all that, it didn't do justice to a real SRL event)...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
I saw that comment and almost barfed.
I started thinking - surfing for porn, and getting paid - must be for blocking software. But doesn't it seem a little disturbing that there are people who say "Yeah! I could get a job surfing for porn, so that it will be blocked by Company X's software - Gawd, I hate looking at porn, but THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!" - I mean, doesn't this sound a little "Jeckle and Hydish"? How can you be repulsed by something, but still take a job doing it...unless you really aren't repulsed by it, right? But then, the dilemma is that you are working to subvert your own interests... Or is that the reason - you like it (porn), but you feel you must do this to "cleanse yourself of evil" - to be forgiven.
There is a name for that kind of behavior, and it isn't sanity...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
While this is certainly funny, and I wish I could mod it up further, the original first use of a vocoder in music was done by the Alan Parsons Project around 1976 or so (does anyone remember the album/track - I can't remember if it was Stereotomy, or Tales/Raven)...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
If I read this correctly, it seems as if you have never actually sat down and read an actual Playboy in your life! Had you actually done so you would have found:
* Interviews (with many interesting people)
* Advice Columns (where people ask and receive answers for a variety of things, such as sex advice, dating advice, advice on electronics purchases, etc)
* General articles on a variety of topics: Literacy, freedom, rights, current events, and many other items of interest
* And oh yeah, in the middle, about 20 pages of very tactful, and artfully done, nude imagery (no sex, very tastful)
This is Playboy! I constantly hear and see women scoffing about it, saying it is all porn, and that is all the men look at, but over 90 percent of the magazine has nothing to do with nude imagery. I would venture 80 percent has nothing to do with sex, either! There really is a lot of worthwhile reading in Playboy...
Had you have mentioned Hustler, or Club, or one of those other, lesser known magazine, I would be more inclined to agree (but hey, even Hustler has good articles). I am certain there are magazines out there that would shock the hell out of you (a trip to an adult "bookstore" can be a very enlightening thing), but Playboy should not fall into this category...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
This was about 10 years ago - I remember a kid in my English class who would sit in the back, and basically draw. He tended to get good grades in the class, even though he didn't take notes and such. I once asked him what he was drawing (I could see he was drawing something, but that was it).
Big mistake.
He handed the paper to me, and on it was a cartoon character of his own design, of basically a guy hanging from a noose in a tree, but only the head in the noose. Below the head was a lifeless body, and a chainsaw nearby. Everything was "covered" in blood (he used a red pen for this). He pulled out other pages, and they were all variations on this theme...
I guess if then was today, he would be locked away in a padded room (I never actually saw him commit any violent act, not even uttering a cuss word - to this day, though, those images remain disturbing).
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Imagine that you could get your employer to pay you "under the table" in cash - they wouldn't have to take out taxes (and thus, you wouldn't have to file - but if you have been filing all along, continue to file as a "below the poverty line" type deal, then slowly stop filing - because if you don't make any [reported] money, you don't have to file). Then, figure out a way to fake your own death - and become a "non-person".
True - it would be tough living this way (very tough) - but legally, you wouldn't exist anymore as a person! And in today's society, this is rapidly becoming something worth pursuing...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!