Alas, I fear that I have much the same problem with the later Niven. His early work was excellent but in the 80's it degenerated into far-right rants and white-boy wish fulfillment. It's really a pity.
I use python+numeric+VTK on beowulf clusters to do real time interactive visualization on our autostereoscopic (3D) monitors. (And before you say: Imagine a Beowulf cluster of... we are metaclustering our clusters) I toss pygame and SWIG into the mix to provide realtime six degree of freedom control through consumer joysticks. SWIG (Simple Wrapper and Interface Generator) provides semi-automatic wrapping of C/C++ and FORTRAN libraries. This allows for the simple binding of libraries to python. The elegant OO design of python and powerful data structures make rapid prototyping very pleasant. After prototyping it is possible to profile and replace hotspots with C code for acceleration. The capacity for exception handling and easy socket communications is very handy as well. The really neat thing about python is that it is well suited to real time operation and laboratory control, thus you can integrate data collection, analysis, and visualization into the same program. For example, last month I wrote a program that fused nasa blue marble data detailed topography and then accepted a socket from the flightgear flight simulator and plotted the flight trajectory over the terrain stereo in real time! Try doing that in FORTRAN.
As a PhD in physics (Optical not Nuclear) and a BA (Lake Forest only gives BAs go figure) in Comp Sci, I suspect much of the FORTRAN use is Atomic and Nuke macho coupled with simple ignorance of programming language issues. FORTRAN compilers are generally regarded to have the best parallel optimization code, and often physicists need cutting edge meath methods to do their work. Remember the vast majority of applied math was developed by physics for physics. Finally, the tendency in physics is to start from first principles, I don't know how many optics derivations I have seen that start with Maxwell's equations. Unfortunately, this is often balanced with a particularly nasty "Not Invented Here" attitiude. Grad Students get heat for taking EE or CS courses, the ignorance of discrete mathematics, data structures (other than sparse matricies) and structured (much less object oriented programming) in some physics department can be astounding. Much of this is due to the lack of skill that CS types have with calculus and continuous math. Our present CTO who can't boot a computer to save his life said "It can't be too tough, since it's just integers and arithmetic!". As a result, many Physics students are autodidacts whith considerable gaps in their CS knowledge. As a result you often get spectacular hacks which are coded and optimized down to the bare metal (with some reactive ion etching to strip off the last ten atom thick oxidation layer) with GUIs and IDEs a few steps removed from punchcards. They often miss Hamming's assertion that numerical analysis is about insight not numbers. It's a perfect case of the dictums that "You can code FORTRAN in any language" and "When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail". This is not to say that there are an awful lot of very good Physics/CS hybrids out there at the bleeding edge of both fields. It's just that the old guard has to die out before the practices are absorbed into formal training. Remember, Newton worked out the inverse square law very quickly, but spent years figuring out how to explain it without calculus (since only he and Leibnitz knew calculus at the time). I personally use any tool which speeds development. Matlab is fantastic for rapid prototyping of and quick analysis of complex data ('tho the data structures stink on ice). I presently use a lot of Numerical Python for the data structures and the ability to incorporate numerical analysis into realtime system (I use pygame, Numerical Pythonfor Lie Group math, and VTK in the same programs). Onn very nice language I didn't see yet is the Integrated Data Language (IDL), a bastard coupling between APL and FORTRAN, combining the brutal elagance of APL with the numerical power of FORTRAN. It's far more consistent and elegant than Matlab. To my knowlege it's heavily used in medical imaging.
Being the lead programmer on a 3D monitor, I'd say that SDL is the way to go. It not only provdes widgets but also an excellent game controller interface. Check out the Python wrapping of SDL PyGame
On the 6 year old 14" CTX cheap$#it monitor that I am typing a reply on a very clear burn-in of the windows task bar is burnt in. In the same manner check out the color CRTs on ATMs. At home I use power management and no comparable burn in seems to occur.
If I had a daughter and anybody told her: "Boy's won't like you if they think you're too smart" I'd rip them a new hole on the spot! Teach a child to compromise on their inteligence, especially a girl, and you will end up with a messed up nervous wreck with no self confidence.
While it is essential to teach a child to respect and be civil to everybody no matter how stupid, it is never worth it to allow someone to impose their supidity on them.
I'd rather raise the next Rear Admiral Dr. Grace Murray Hopper than the next Anna Nicole Smith.
Teaching proper behavior is essential, you daughter is gifted and different, and one must never forget that this is an obligation to help those who are not so gifted.
On the other hand, this may not help in the popularity department. Speaking from personal experience being smart and different or even just smart will not become popular until late high school, early college.
Even so, proper conduct, humility and superhuman patience are necessary to handle society and game the system. On the other hand NEVER EVER COMPROMISE, NEVER EVER SETTLE, and NEVER EVER hide your light under a bushel.
Just remind her of the Tomn Clancy quote "Nerds get smart, jocks get old."
I can speak from personal experience, I was classified as ADHD as well as EMH (Educably Mentally Handicaped) (just smart enough to dig ditches) until I tested with a 150+ IQ. Fortunately, my parents stuck to their guns and got me both LD and gifted education resources. Despite everything I managed to get a Ph.D. in Physics, become a member in good standing of Mensa and a Director at the company I work at.
Here's my recomondations:
-DON'T USE 'R'! It's really bad stuff, and it only dumbs you down. I was on it for 1 week only.
-TAKE MOST 'SPECIALISTS' ADVICE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. Most doctors in the field don't have a clue and want to medicate at the drop of a hat. Find a doctor who makes sense and doesn't medicate.
-Contact the local branch of the LDA (Learning Disabilites Association ldanatl.org) and network with the parents.
-Contact MENSA and obtain as much info on support for the gifted child. When I mention getting classified as EMH half of the people at MENSA say "Don't you hate it when that happens!", the coincidence of ADHD and high IQ is much higher than you might think.
-Stimulate, Stimulate, Stimulate: ADHDs are often natural polymaths. We can assimilate a lot of information simultaneously, a library card, internet access, plenty of smart toys and a radio can be the key to rapid development.
-Find a 'Conveyor Belt': I think much better with a certain base level of distraction, i.e. while I'm walking or music is playing. It tends to mask out minor distractions and keep a constant flow of thought. Figure out what works for her.
-Fight like hell! The schools don't want to handle the gifted or the special child, they wan't to produce a uniform product and treat anybody different badly (welcome to the hellmouth). Use the LDA and MENSA to determine what the schools are obligated to do and HOLD THEM TO IT!
-Computers are your friend. I can't add, spell, draw a straight line, remember a phone number or write in a legible cursive script. The reason I'm not digging ditches is that I have computers calculators and PDAs to do all that for me. Teach her how to add, write and so on and then introduce computer solutions as fast as possible. I failed drafting because I couldn't crosshatch, now I render 3D with the best of them. Moore's law makes this the golden age for the ADHD/LD/Gifted individual.
-Remind her of Famous People with the same problems. Disney, Edison, Churchill, and Newton for starters. "Do Not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you that mine are still greater" -Einstein
-Teach self confidence but include Noblesse Oblige.
-Support her to the hilt! As any denizen of/. knows, being different is never easy. Remind her that being different is hard but it is worth it!
Whenever the issue of the use of PDA's come up, a good chunk of slashdotters become flaming neo-luddites stating that the functions of a PDA is easily replaced with paper and pencil. They sound a lot like the following quote:
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- Ken Olson, founder, chairman & president of DEC, 1977
The basic fallacy in both outlooks is the assumption that Mainframe=PC=PDA. The PDA performs a variety of simple tasks any one of which could be replaced by a simpler tool. The reason the PDA is useful is fivefold: 1. The PDA being a general purpose computer can perform dozens of separate tasks eliminationg quite a bit of the impedimentia of everyday life. 2. The PDA can perform databasing, calculation, and access very large data sets, providing added value to each operation. 3. The PDA knows what time it is, where it is at (w/GPS), and can access the internet (either offline or via wireless). 4. The contents of the PDA are digital data allowing it to slosh instantly back and forth between the PDA and the desktop. Try to do that with handwritten notes, checkbook ledgers and adress book entries. 5. The PDA is always at hand meaning that you access and enter data immediately greatly reducing the probability of losing or confusing the data.
I actually carry 2 PDAs on my belt all the time.
My Visor Pro does all of my tradtional PDA tasks, since it runs 2 weeks on a single charge and runs the Palm OS. I use it as an: -eBook: holding half a dozen novels on removable Smart Media flash. Last year I finished off all of the Harry Potter books while waiting in holiday airport lines. -Newspaper: using sitescooper to dump my favorite websites each moring to iSilo -Timer/Stopwatch: Using BigClock I have four alarms and four highly flexible countdown timers or countup stopwatches. -Mapbox: I use mapopolis in conjunction with my plug in GPS to navigate the city, and Solus Pro to navigate fixed routes during trips. -Locator: I use Vindigo to locate movie times, resturants, and other points of interest (On trips I have ended up giving locals directions). -Shopping List, Smart Checklist: HandyShop provides an excellent checklist for shopping, packing or any checklist oriented task, which in turn may be reset at the end of a task. -Ledger: I use Pocket Quicken to record my transactions as they happen, Quicken on my desktop then allows me to reconcile against my daily statement. -Diet and Exercise Log: I track my weight, dietary intake and exercise. -Ephemeris: I have a full star chart and planet rise and set times within my palm. -Scientific Calculator: Smaller and cheaper than a plotting calculator but with more functionality. -Address Book, Notebook, Scheduler: Very handy although not the defining function of the unit.
The relative lack of software and limited battery time of my Zaurus makes it my secondary unit but it really shines in several regards: -Web Browsing: With 802.11b access at most Starbucks locations, and Opera as the default browser the Zaurus is ideal for browsing on the go. -Travel Newspaper: Since the Zaurus has broadband access and the capacity to capture content on it's own It's perfect for getting plenty of reading for the plane while passing Starbucks. -Programming: Python, Perl, GCC, Octave and Gnuplot 'nuff said. -Photo Album: I can immediately access the contents of my digital camera and show pictures of high quality to other people.
Try Sitescooper (http://sitescooper.org/) set for HTML files. It's a perl program which runs on your desktop and dumps the content of websites to condensed files. Actually,it's better than avantgo for the Palm as well. Although I havent tried this yet it may be possible to run sitescooper on the zaurus itself. Zepo (http://www.alterna.tv/zepo/) does much the same thing but performs the operations naitively on the Zaurus. As a result, when on the road, you can snarf a fresh days worth of reading with your 802.11b at the Starbucks while getting your coffee (I've done this).
Just rig the serial cable to a NMEA GPS recievcer and use the CF for 802.11b With a little serial cable splicing, it should be possbile to link a "smart antenna" based unit such as a pharos. Alternately you could use a bluetooth module along with an internet access device (cell phone) and the new bluetooth enabled Emtac GPS (http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=CRUXIIBT GPS)
I've got a nice little Ambicom BT2000-CF Bluetooth module which is supported within my Zaurus SL-5500. Check out (http://bluez.sourceforge.net/download/zaurus/READ ME.bluez.zaurus.txt. But most of the time I just use my Ambicom WL1100C-CF 802.11b module at my Friendly Neighborhood Starbucks. Expresso and high speed web access using Opera, sweet! It also supports wired ethernet (great for hotel broadband) and modems.
The sitescooper (sitescooper.org) is an excellent Perl based program which very effectively collects, strips down and repackages webpages in an efficient manner. It is reasonably simple to configure. I use it with iSilo on my PalmOS Visor, but you can also use it on arbitary PDAs by using HTML output. It does require a script to run on the syncing computer which is a problem if you are not travelling with a laptop with internet access. It also features the capacity to use netscape cookies to access stuff like NY Times and Salon.
For those of us who are fortunate enough to have a Zaurus there is a particularly nifty alternative Zepo (http://www.alterna.tv/zepo/ http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/showdetail.php?app=6 83). Zepo directly snarfs, reformats, and compresses webpages when it has web access and then allows you to read the results offline when not connected. It's java based, thus hopefully platform independent. I've sucessfully snarfed websites at Starbucks using a T-Mobile 802.11b connection. Very fast and efficent.
WWWOFLE (www.gedanken.demon.co.uk/wwwoffle/ http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/showdetail.php?app=3 01) is an offline capture, storage and display system, I've used it on the Zaurus but it has problems in handling cookies and establishing a link to the T-Mobile service at Starbucks.
To summarize: working from your home computer with the Palm or Zaurus should use sitescooper. If you are travelling with a Zaurus use Zepo.
To paraphrase Don Lancaster "Postscript is an excellent general purpose programming language which occasionally gets a perfectly good piece of white paper" his website provides a large number of interesting postscript apps.
As a postscript hacker I often find that in the process of programming the printer interface I end up doing the entire program in postscript! For example I have implemented maximum length linear shift register based pseudorandom number generators to form random optical masks.
Using freestanding postscript programs is particularly useful for high resolution (>2500 dpi) raster image processors where file sizes can really get out of hand
Some accounts of the mission indicated that the last food pellets within the probe had a fast acting poision to at least make Laika's death fast and relatively humane.
Amen to that! Personally 'Looking Backwards' and 'Equality' count as Utopian novels for me. If that's a little too collectivist for you, try the short story "Business as Usual During Alterations" by Ralph Williams, in which capatalism survives free matter copiers.
Not because of VisionTek or ELSA folding, or the earinings restatements. The reason they are doomed is very simple: They made the cover of Wired, which ensures the imminent collapse of any company that makes the cover.
Remember Push technology, cover of Wired, vanished without a trace.
Remember Smell-o-Vision for the internet, cover of Wired, vanished without a trace.
Remember the New Economy, cover of Wired, vanished without a trace.
Remember Y2K, cover of Wired, vanished without a trace.
So next thing you know NVIDIA is on the cover of Wired...
Re:inertia and power and calibration
on
Gyroscopic Mouse
·
· Score: 1
The basic concept of the piezo rate gyro is basically a pencil lead sized focault pendulum. Basically a the silicon beam vibrates and when it turns the vibration remains in the inertial frame of reference.
The MEMS wineglass gyro based on making a 1 mm hoop of silicon is far more nifty. You set up a vibration similar to the mode you get when you run a moistened finger across the edge of a wineglass.
Once again, the vibration essentially stays in the inertial frame allowing you to sense rotation. The neat part is that the sensor is nickel plated silicon on a chip. This means small size (2mm^2) small power consumption and chip fab manufacture.
The gyration uses a clone of the ENC05-e. The MG100s are miserably bulky power hogs with thermal issues
But it's still hard to get good "wineglass" MEMS rate gyros
My stylist (a lady) is fully certified and trained under her cosmetologists licence, to perform straight razor shaves. I wear a full beard so all I need is touchups around the neck, but she certianly knows how to shave without cutting with a straight razor.
Get a Sigma Designs RealMagic Hollywood+ Decoder card or a Creative DVR-3 Get remote selector (www.remoteselector.com)and set the options for user control and macrovision disable
Get an ADXL-202 MEMS accelerometer (Analog Devices will send you a few for free as samples) The new version is a chip smaller than a fingernail and can be mounted on a ring on the finger.
Use the circuit from the Analog Devices Tech Note USING THE ADXL202 ACCELEROMETER AS A MULTIFUNCTION SENSOR (TILT, VIBRATION AND SHOCK) IN CAR ALARMS
Slashdot Mirror
Alas, I fear that I have much the same problem with the later Niven. His early work was excellent but in the 80's it degenerated into far-right rants and white-boy wish fulfillment. It's really a pity.
I use python+numeric+VTK on beowulf clusters to do real time interactive visualization on our autostereoscopic (3D) monitors.
(And before you say: Imagine a Beowulf cluster of... we are metaclustering our clusters)
I toss pygame and SWIG into the mix to provide realtime six degree of freedom control through consumer joysticks.
SWIG (Simple Wrapper and Interface Generator) provides semi-automatic wrapping of C/C++ and FORTRAN libraries. This allows for the simple binding of libraries to python.
The elegant OO design of python and powerful data structures make rapid prototyping very pleasant. After prototyping it is possible to profile and replace hotspots with C code for acceleration.
The capacity for exception handling and easy socket communications is very handy as well.
The really neat thing about python is that it is well suited to real time operation and laboratory control, thus you can integrate data collection, analysis, and visualization into the same program.
For example, last month I wrote a program that fused nasa blue marble data detailed topography and then accepted a socket from the flightgear flight simulator and plotted the flight trajectory over the terrain stereo in real time! Try doing that in FORTRAN.
Python also has an atlas interface via numerical python.
As a PhD in physics (Optical not Nuclear) and a BA (Lake Forest only gives BAs go figure) in Comp Sci, I suspect much of the FORTRAN use is Atomic and Nuke macho coupled with simple ignorance of programming language issues.
FORTRAN compilers are generally regarded to have the best parallel optimization code, and often physicists need cutting edge meath methods to do their work. Remember the vast majority of applied math was developed by physics for physics. Finally, the tendency in physics is to start from first principles, I don't know how many optics derivations I have seen that start with Maxwell's equations.
Unfortunately, this is often balanced with a particularly nasty "Not Invented Here" attitiude. Grad Students get heat for taking EE or CS courses, the ignorance of discrete mathematics, data structures (other than sparse matricies) and structured (much less object oriented programming) in some physics department can be astounding. Much of this is due to the lack of skill that CS types have with calculus and continuous math. Our present CTO who can't boot a computer to save his life said "It can't be too tough, since it's just integers and arithmetic!". As a result, many Physics students are autodidacts whith considerable gaps in their CS knowledge.
As a result you often get spectacular hacks which are coded and optimized down to the bare metal (with some reactive ion etching to strip off the last ten atom thick oxidation layer) with GUIs and IDEs a few steps removed from punchcards. They often miss Hamming's assertion that numerical analysis is about insight not numbers. It's a perfect case of the dictums that "You can code FORTRAN in any language" and "When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail".
This is not to say that there are an awful lot of very good Physics/CS hybrids out there at the bleeding edge of both fields. It's just that the old guard has to die out before the practices are absorbed into formal training. Remember, Newton worked out the inverse square law very quickly, but spent years figuring out how to explain it without calculus (since only he and Leibnitz knew calculus at the time).
I personally use any tool which speeds development. Matlab is fantastic for rapid prototyping of and quick analysis of complex data ('tho the data structures stink on ice). I presently use a lot of Numerical Python for the data structures and the ability to incorporate numerical analysis into realtime system (I use pygame, Numerical Pythonfor Lie Group math, and VTK in the same programs).
Onn very nice language I didn't see yet is the Integrated Data Language (IDL), a bastard coupling between APL and FORTRAN, combining the brutal elagance of APL with the numerical power of FORTRAN. It's far more consistent and elegant than Matlab. To my knowlege it's heavily used in medical imaging.
...inject it into Keith Ritchards and see if it survives!
I can remember $1/MB drives...I feel old...
For the invention of Python and because Guido is a cool name.
Being the lead programmer on a 3D monitor, I'd say that SDL is the way to go. It not only provdes widgets but also an excellent game controller interface.
Check out the Python wrapping of SDL PyGame
On the 6 year old 14" CTX cheap$#it monitor that I am typing a reply on a very clear burn-in of the windows task bar is burnt in. In the same manner check out the color CRTs on ATMs. At home I use power management and no comparable burn in seems to occur.
Hell yes!
ADHD, Smart and a GEEK by the grace of God!
If I had a daughter and anybody told her: "Boy's won't like you if they think you're too smart" I'd rip them a new hole on the spot! Teach a child to compromise on their inteligence, especially a girl, and you will end up with a messed up nervous wreck with no self confidence.
While it is essential to teach a child to respect and be civil to everybody no matter how stupid, it is never worth it to allow someone to impose their supidity on them.
I'd rather raise the next Rear Admiral Dr. Grace Murray Hopper than the next Anna Nicole Smith.
Good point.
Teaching proper behavior is essential, you daughter is gifted and different, and one must never forget that this is an obligation to help those who are not so gifted.
On the other hand, this may not help in the popularity department. Speaking from personal experience being smart and different or even just smart will not become popular until late high school, early college.
Even so, proper conduct, humility and superhuman patience are necessary to handle society and game the system. On the other hand NEVER EVER COMPROMISE, NEVER EVER SETTLE, and NEVER EVER hide your light under a bushel.
Just remind her of the Tomn Clancy quote "Nerds get smart, jocks get old."
I can speak from personal experience, I was classified as ADHD as well as EMH (Educably Mentally Handicaped) (just smart enough to dig ditches) until I tested with a 150+ IQ. Fortunately, my parents stuck to their guns and got me both LD and gifted education resources. Despite everything I managed to get a Ph.D. in Physics, become a member in good standing of Mensa and a Director at the company I work at.
/. knows, being different is never easy. Remind her that being different is hard but it is worth it!
Here's my recomondations:
-DON'T USE 'R'! It's really bad stuff, and it only dumbs you down. I was on it for 1 week only.
-TAKE MOST 'SPECIALISTS' ADVICE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. Most doctors in the field don't have a clue and want to medicate at the drop of a hat. Find a doctor who makes sense and doesn't medicate.
-Contact the local branch of the LDA (Learning Disabilites Association ldanatl.org) and network with the parents.
-Contact MENSA and obtain as much info on support for the gifted child. When I mention getting classified as EMH half of the people at MENSA say "Don't you hate it when that happens!", the coincidence of ADHD and high IQ is much higher than you might think.
-Stimulate, Stimulate, Stimulate: ADHDs are often natural polymaths. We can assimilate a lot of information simultaneously, a library card, internet access, plenty of smart toys and a radio can be the key to rapid development.
-Find a 'Conveyor Belt': I think much better with a certain base level of distraction, i.e. while I'm walking or music is playing. It tends to mask out minor distractions and keep a constant flow of thought. Figure out what works for her.
-Fight like hell! The schools don't want to handle the gifted or the special child, they wan't to produce a uniform product and treat anybody different badly (welcome to the hellmouth). Use the LDA and MENSA to determine what the schools are obligated to do and HOLD THEM TO IT!
-Computers are your friend. I can't add, spell, draw a straight line, remember a phone number or write in a legible cursive script. The reason I'm not digging ditches is that I have computers calculators and PDAs to do all that for me. Teach her how to add, write and so on and then introduce computer solutions as fast as possible. I failed drafting because I couldn't crosshatch, now I render 3D with the best of them. Moore's law makes this the golden age for the ADHD/LD/Gifted individual.
-Remind her of Famous People with the same problems. Disney, Edison, Churchill, and Newton for starters. "Do Not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you that mine are still greater" -Einstein
-Teach self confidence but include Noblesse Oblige.
-Support her to the hilt! As any denizen of
Whenever the issue of the use of PDA's come up, a good chunk of slashdotters become flaming neo-luddites stating that the functions of a PDA is easily replaced with paper and pencil. They sound a lot like the following quote:
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, founder, chairman & president of DEC, 1977
The basic fallacy in both outlooks is the assumption that Mainframe=PC=PDA. The PDA performs a variety of simple tasks any one of which could be replaced by a simpler tool. The reason the PDA is useful is fivefold:
1. The PDA being a general purpose computer can perform dozens of separate tasks eliminationg quite a bit of the impedimentia of everyday life.
2. The PDA can perform databasing, calculation, and access very large data sets, providing added value to each operation.
3. The PDA knows what time it is, where it is at (w/GPS), and can access the internet (either offline or via wireless).
4. The contents of the PDA are digital data allowing it to slosh instantly back and forth between the PDA and the desktop. Try to do that with handwritten notes, checkbook ledgers and adress book entries.
5. The PDA is always at hand meaning that you access and enter data immediately greatly reducing the probability of losing or confusing the data.
I actually carry 2 PDAs on my belt all the time.
My Visor Pro does all of my tradtional PDA tasks, since it runs 2 weeks on a single charge and runs the Palm OS. I use it as an:
-eBook: holding half a dozen novels on removable Smart Media flash. Last year I finished off all of the Harry Potter books while waiting in holiday airport lines.
-Newspaper: using sitescooper to dump my favorite websites each moring to iSilo
-Timer/Stopwatch: Using BigClock I have four alarms and four highly flexible countdown timers or countup stopwatches.
-Mapbox: I use mapopolis in conjunction with my plug in GPS to navigate the city, and Solus Pro to navigate fixed routes during trips.
-Locator: I use Vindigo to locate movie times, resturants, and other points of interest (On trips I have ended up giving locals directions).
-Shopping List, Smart Checklist: HandyShop provides an excellent checklist for shopping, packing or any checklist oriented task, which in turn may be reset at the end of a task.
-Ledger: I use Pocket Quicken to record my transactions as they happen, Quicken on my desktop then allows me to reconcile against my daily statement.
-Diet and Exercise Log: I track my weight, dietary intake and exercise.
-Ephemeris: I have a full star chart and planet rise and set times within my palm.
-Scientific Calculator: Smaller and cheaper than a plotting calculator but with more functionality.
-Address Book, Notebook, Scheduler: Very handy although not the defining function of the unit.
The relative lack of software and limited battery time of my Zaurus makes it my secondary unit but it really shines in several regards:
-Web Browsing: With 802.11b access at most Starbucks locations, and Opera as the default browser the Zaurus is ideal for browsing on the go.
-Travel Newspaper: Since the Zaurus has broadband access and the capacity to capture content on it's own It's perfect for getting plenty of reading for the plane while passing Starbucks.
-Programming: Python, Perl, GCC, Octave and Gnuplot 'nuff said.
-Photo Album: I can immediately access the contents of my digital camera and show pictures of high quality to other people.
Try Sitescooper (http://sitescooper.org/) set for HTML files. It's a perl program which runs on your desktop and dumps the content of websites to condensed files. Actually,it's better than avantgo for the Palm as well. Although I havent tried this yet it may be possible to run sitescooper on the zaurus itself.
Zepo (http://www.alterna.tv/zepo/) does much the same thing but performs the operations naitively on the Zaurus. As a result, when on the road, you can snarf a fresh days worth of reading with your 802.11b at the Starbucks while getting your coffee (I've done this).
Just rig the serial cable to a NMEA GPS recievcer and use the CF for 802.11bT GPS)
With a little serial cable splicing, it should be possbile to link a "smart antenna" based unit such as a pharos.
Alternately you could use a bluetooth module along with an internet access device (cell phone) and the new bluetooth enabled Emtac GPS (http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=CRUXIIB
I've got a nice little Ambicom BT2000-CF Bluetooth module which is supported within my Zaurus SL-5500. Check out (http://bluez.sourceforge.net/download/zaurus/READ ME.bluez.zaurus.txt. But most of the time I just use my Ambicom WL1100C-CF 802.11b module at my Friendly Neighborhood Starbucks. Expresso and high speed web access using Opera, sweet!
It also supports wired ethernet (great for hotel broadband) and modems.
The sitescooper (sitescooper.org) is an excellent Perl based program which very effectively collects, strips down and repackages webpages in an efficient manner. It is reasonably simple to configure. I use it with iSilo on my PalmOS Visor, but you can also use it on arbitary PDAs by using HTML output. It does require a script to run on the syncing computer which is a problem if you are not travelling with a laptop with internet access. It also features the capacity to use netscape cookies to access stuff like NY Times and Salon.
6 83). Zepo directly snarfs, reformats, and compresses webpages when it has web access and then allows you to read the results offline when not connected. It's java based, thus hopefully platform independent. I've sucessfully snarfed websites at Starbucks using a T-Mobile 802.11b connection. Very fast and efficent.
3 01) is an offline capture, storage and display system, I've used it on the Zaurus but it has problems in handling cookies and establishing a link to the T-Mobile service at Starbucks.
For those of us who are fortunate enough to have a Zaurus there is a particularly nifty alternative Zepo (http://www.alterna.tv/zepo/ http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/showdetail.php?app=
WWWOFLE (www.gedanken.demon.co.uk/wwwoffle/ http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/showdetail.php?app=
To summarize: working from your home computer with the Palm or Zaurus should use sitescooper. If you are travelling with a Zaurus use Zepo.
To paraphrase Don Lancaster "Postscript is an excellent general purpose programming language which occasionally gets a perfectly good piece of white paper" his website provides a large number of interesting postscript apps.
As a postscript hacker I often find that in the process of programming the printer interface I end up doing the entire program in postscript! For example I have implemented maximum length linear shift register based pseudorandom number generators to form random optical masks.
Using freestanding postscript programs is particularly useful for high resolution (>2500 dpi) raster image processors where file sizes can really get out of hand
Some accounts of the mission indicated that the last food pellets within the probe had a fast acting poision to at least make Laika's death fast and relatively humane.
Of course this is now quite moot.
Amen to that!
Personally 'Looking Backwards' and 'Equality' count as Utopian novels for me. If that's a little too collectivist for you, try the short story "Business as Usual During Alterations" by Ralph Williams, in which capatalism survives free matter copiers.
Not because of VisionTek or ELSA folding, or the earinings restatements. The reason they are doomed is very simple: They made the cover of Wired, which ensures the imminent collapse of any company that makes the cover.
...
Remember Push technology, cover of Wired, vanished without a trace.
Remember Smell-o-Vision for the internet, cover of Wired, vanished without a trace.
Remember the New Economy, cover of Wired, vanished without a trace.
Remember Y2K, cover of Wired, vanished without a trace.
So next thing you know NVIDIA is on the cover of Wired
The basic concept of the piezo rate gyro is basically a pencil lead sized focault pendulum. Basically a the silicon beam vibrates and when it turns the vibration remains in the inertial frame of reference.
The MEMS wineglass gyro based on making a 1 mm hoop of silicon is far more nifty. You set up a vibration similar to the mode you get when you run a moistened finger across the edge of a wineglass.
Once again, the vibration essentially stays in the inertial frame allowing you to sense rotation. The neat part is that the sensor is nickel plated silicon on a chip. This means small size (2mm^2) small power consumption and chip fab manufacture.
The gyration uses a clone of the ENC05-e.
The MG100s are miserably bulky power hogs with thermal issues
But it's still hard to get good "wineglass" MEMS rate gyros
My stylist (a lady) is fully certified and trained under her cosmetologists licence, to perform straight razor shaves. I wear a full beard so all I need is touchups around the neck, but she certianly knows how to shave without cutting with a straight razor.
Get a Sigma Designs RealMagic Hollywood+ Decoder card or a Creative DVR-3
Get remote selector (www.remoteselector.com)and set the options for user control and macrovision disable
problem solved
Get an ADXL-202 MEMS accelerometer (Analog Devices will send you a few for free as samples)
m s/car_app.pdf
The new version is a chip smaller than a fingernail and can be mounted on a ring on the finger.
Use the circuit from the Analog Devices Tech Note
USING THE ADXL202 ACCELEROMETER AS A MULTIFUNCTION SENSOR (TILT, VIBRATION AND SHOCK) IN CAR ALARMS
from: http://www.analog.com/library/applicationNotes/me
The ADXL-202 has neglible weight and is very responsive, the primary trick is to set the threshold so as to avoid twitches and involuntary motion.
The same circuit exists in tilt-pad gamepads and can be canablized from the unit providing a simple USB interface