My friends, their friends, and their friends (like, people I've never heard of), always end up coming to me for this same advice.
Sometimes I give/sell them parts out of my garage, because their old equipment also somehow ends up in my garage.:)
I tend to like SuperMicro equipment, so if you have a few bucks to spend, go find yourself a nice SuperMicro 1u. But since this is your personal machine, and you don't have a huge budget, you'll have to shop like I do.
Check out the VisionMan machines on tigerdirect.com. For about $550, you can get a 2Ghz dual core with 1Gb RAM, 2 160Gb SATA drives
I haven't bought any yet, but if I ever run out of parts in my garage for new servers, I'll probably buy one.:)
You can always go browsing on eBay. Sometimes you'll find a good deal, but generally you're not going to get much decent for under $500. There are resellers on there all the time, who grab up anything cheap (or bid them up to over $500), that they're going to sell to their customers. If you do, be cautious of home built machines. They're the best thing in the world if they're done right, but if they weren't, you can experience lots of nasty problems. Like, if there isn't enough air flow, the CPU can overheat, and in a week or two you may end up looking for a new machine again.
I was building my own 1u machines for quite a while. When we approached 1Ghz, I had to start doing some special cooling. After that, since the company was making good money, it was cost effective to get the SuperMicro machines.
The final option is... I needed an incoming mail server to filter viruses and spam. This was a rather urgent matter, and I didn't really have time to go through my garage piecing a machine together and test it. I also didn't have time to order anything. I went down to CompUSA (they re-opened close to my house), and picked up an eMachines AMD64 with 1Gb ram for $250. It's a tower case, but if I felt ambitious (which I didn't that night), I could have easily rebuilt it into a spare 2u case. The memory was not seated well when I unboxed it, but that's the only problem that it's had so far, and it's been running hard for a few weeks.
Well, there are a lot of people who do alternative things.
On a few mail installations I've done, it watches for abusers, and blocks them with firewall rules, based on other detections including SpamAssassin.
So even my own mail system would block gmail if it detects enough spam coming from them. The threshold is high enough to not false, and low enough to stop most of the badguys. On a typical server (~50k msg/day) something like 1500 get blocked daily, with no complaints that real mail is being blocked.
If Google is sending spam out, it's very likely they'll be tripped up by thousands of networks world wide, who have their own precautions in place like I do.
You could do this with a camcorders, and any of dozens of webcam apps. As long as they archive the footage, you're ok. Some of the programs will record video if there's movement.
I had a nice Windows app, but I can't seem to find it right now. Just search for "webcam", and try some out.
For the camcorders themselves, hit eBay or your local pawn shop. Get a resolution that's satisfactory to you.
For the capture device, get a BT8x8 chipset card. I'm not even going to attempt to suggest which one, since they're all pretty much the same, except for the price tag. You should be able to get one pretty cheap.
That'd give you a base. Now it's up to you to expand from there. Maybe a better capture card would do better for you.
I know most people are going to frown upon me posting a Windows solution. Usually I would too. There are far more Windows webcam apps that work, than for the *nix crowd. I don't like Windows, but when I was looking in the past, this is what I found, and I had been determined to use my Linux machine. There's no one to fault but the developers who aren't writing for Linux.
We (my ex-employer) had a site set up that "streamed" video with Webcam32. Ya, it was FTP, frame by frame, but the javascript gave the illusion of motion. This was a long time ago, and basically that's all we did. Commodity cameras (cheapest Sony handycam from Walmart). Commodity cards (any BT8x8 chipset card), and a crappy Windows PC, so they could use it as a workstation also.
Someone shot out the windows of a friend's store. The police took a report and abandon it. He asked me to have a look at the "video". It was basically a PC with 4 cameras attached. The resolution was too rough to read the license plate of the shooter's vehicle, or even give a definite make and model. It took me hours to go through and find the right place on the "video". When I did, we were able to make out that it was a white pickup truck, with blue neon lights underneath, and something written in white on the back window.
The store employees recognized that as possibly being one guy, except they weren't sure about the lights. We went to his house that night, and shot video under the truck showing the lights. I compiled the "video" from the security system, and made a data disk of the whole thing.
The police made an arrest the next day. With what we provided, they got a search warrant, and found the same caliber handgun under his driver seat as the bullets in the wall. He immediately confessed, and admitted to doing it to 3 other businesses that night too. Apparently ours was the only "evidence". Although I volunteered to testify in court about how I compiled the data, because of his confession there was no trial.
I'd recommend the system you're looking to build, versus the "professional" system. At least you can tune it up as needed. Their system was a fixed configuration, so we were really stuck. The interface was painful at best. It would lock up, get confused to where I was looking, drop to other cameras, etc, etc, etc. I didn't have access to just look at the filesystem, and since we were looking at evidence, I didn't want to rip it apart and try to mount it's drives in another machine.
It won't be until we actually get out there, that we find out.
If it's 1.4 per galaxy, and there are... ummm... a whole bunch of galaxies. Once again applying the same logic for the size of the universe, and the length of time, there are very likely other species out there that not only have survived the life-cap, but have accomplished intergalactic travel. I wouldn't be surprised to find that there are intergalactic travelers who look at such a trip like a drive to the grocery store. Now, would they want to try to communicate with something as lowly as us? Ha, those silly humans haven't even made it beyond their own moon.
I've been watching my subether signaling device for many years now. Still nothing. No one wants to come around here, and risk getting nuked for being an evil alien. We're broadcasting enough TV out there, every species that comes around here knows what humans think of anything not originally from Earth. Well, for that matter, humans don't seem to like things that ARE from Earth either. Plants, animals, and even other humans are all fair game for killing.
I saw a reply to you, where they were talking about the chain cert. As long as you're not chaining, it's a piece of cake.
I've helped a few people with their chained certs. Sometimes THAT is a pain, because sometimes you have to BEG for the intermediary cert.
I've been buying cheap certs for years for a few things I do. Give the credit card, the drop an email to something resembling administrative at your domain, and then you get the cert.
There was some mention about mobile devices. No one has mentioned if they do or don't work to me.
I just tried my largest site from my blackberry. I got the message:
"The server certificate is not trusted by your handheld. Would you like to continue with the connection, close the connection, or view the certificate for more information?" [Continue] [Close] [View Cert] [Don't ask again]
In viewing my cert, it says:
x freeinternetpress.com * ntrusted Cert Chain *Unkonwn Chain Status Revocation Status: Unknown Trust Status: Not Trusted Expiration Date: Wed, Nov 19, 2008 11:41:17 Certificate Type: X509 Public Key Type: RSA 1024 Subject: freeinternetpress.com OU=380674343 OU=See www.rapidssl.com/resources/cps (c)07 OU=Domain Control Validated - RapidSSL(R) O=freeinternetpress.com C=NA CN=Equifax Secure Global eBusiness CA-1 O=Equifax Secure Inc. C=US Serial Number: 06FC DB
ok, that's enough typing.:) Really, people aren't doing ecommerce items from their phone. I get annoyed having to type more than 3 or 4 characters. People get short emails from me on the phone, and long ones from a mail client.
For the news site, SSL is for protecting the logins, submitting news, etc.. If the users want to go secure, they're given the option. Most of the users never do though.
I've had the passing glance at some of those ads. Some you can pay for with PayPal and credit cards.
I don't know if I'd trust that "vendor" with a credit card though. I'm a bit concerned to where it would be swiped.
I'd be willing to bet, some of the more computer adept "vendors" would take PayPal. Do you want that paper trail though? Cash is always best for those moments you don't need haunting you in the future. When I run for president in 2012, I wouldn't want that found. Of course, I'll legalize a few things so it wouldn't matter.
We are in a large galaxy, in an infinitely sized universe, in an infinite length time period.
In our infinitely sized universe, we are one of an infinite number of number of galaxies.
In those galaxies, there are a finite number of stars (oh my gosh, that's limiting). Assume our galaxy may be average, with over 200 billion stars. Assume the average star has 8 satellites, and at least 4 are in an orbit close enough to the star to sustain life as we know it.
Just in our galaxy, that makes our little star 1 in 400,000,000,000.
Now, multiple the number of planets that may hold life by infinity.
But, why should we believe that all life has a common starting point (please don't bring up theology in this discussion). There is an infinite time line that life and even civilizations could have come and gone.
I seriously doubt that we are the lone intelligent life in this galaxy. There may have already been civilizations that have come and gone, or that haven't even started yet.
In the universe? It's incomprehensible that we could be alone. We had dumb luck on this planet, and I'm sure it's happened elsewhere too.
The question for encountering aliens would be...
If they exist now, how far away are they? I doubt they're parked behind the moon, waiting for an invitation. Maybe we're so far away from them, that no matter how much noise we make, we're undetectable. From the other side of the galaxy, we're just a faint dot. From galaxies over, they could only theorize that we're here.
It's perfectly possible though that this same conversation is happening in another galaxy, and someone there would say "but we're the only ones. There is no other life.", and we'll continue not to find out.
I think our best chance for a kick start into advancing ourselves would be to start exploring. In time, I suspect we would find artifacts of civilizations which have passed close to here before, and that may give us a bit more information on where to go and how to find others.
For now, we haven't made any serious progress off this rock, and the current social and political environments aren't pushing for the serious advancement of our own space travel to find out.
... which is how radar detector detectors worked.:)
I haven't used a radar detector in a long time, because in my area they were using switched radar units. I had a better chance of visually spotting a speed trap than detecting it first. One thing I had observed though was, some of my radar detectors would have false alarms because of other radar detectors. Some of my friends and I had tested it, where we'd turn our units on and off to see who's would set off false alarms based on who's units. We concluded that yes, some units would make other units beep that there was a radar source present.
The same applied to some home alarms, and automatic doors. I had more false alarms than real detection, which was another good reason to stop using them.
Building a GPS receiver detector would be a bit trickier, because the designs are so varied. I would think the best way to detect one would be a wide radio spectrum analyzer, and a very careful examination of the object you think may have a tracker on it. I believe you'd be looking for the same or similar frequency as the GPS signal is, and you'd always have some signal from the satellites. A very directional antenna may help.
It was my understanding that every cell phone sold in the last few years had GPS capability for e911 service, although they may disable the GPS service for any user interfaces.
I found this page which says Verizon Wireless has GPS service in all wireless voice devices, to assist 911 operators in finding a victim. I know this isn't exactly true though. My stepson had a medical emergency about a year ago in the car (see my journal). I called 911 from my Verizon Wireless phone. I knew what road I was on, but since I was in the middle of my trip, I wasn't absolutely sure what the last exit I passed was. I gave the road, direction of travel, side of the road I stopped on, and a close reference to the nearby exits. I gave it to them within a couple miles. I was on the side of an interstate, with clear view of the sky in all directions, and there hadn't been any clouds in the sky all day. You can't ask for better reception for GPS.
We waited 15 minutes, with no callback and no emergency vehicles showing up. I gave up, decided he was stable enough to transport, strapped him back in the car, and drove as fast as I could for help. There was one of the radar speed signs on the side of the road, which flashed 99 as I passed it. I was going for help, and would have been satisfied to get pulled over.
I found a deputy with a DUI pulled over, and he helped us. He called for an ambulance, and apparently emergency ops didn't know where we were. No one had been dispatched.
While I like to stroke my own ego, I've been questioned on my experience over the years at various interviews. A few times, we've gone line item by line item, and I've explained each one with technical detail.
I ran a huge server farm with one of the top traffic web sites, along with thousands of other sites. Anyone saying that scaling is impossible or even that difficult hasn't done it before. If someone asked me how to, or if it was possible, before I did it, I would have been terrified. Now that I've done it several times, I can help anyone scale their project. Well, assuming they're willing to make a few changes along the way.
It's usually green on black. I use yellow on black for special shells (like when I'm using a lot of shells with cssh). Putty defaults to white on black, so when I'm stuck in Windows land, that's it.
Any shells that default to black on white, I switch immediately. It's not so bad in a web browser, but there's something about a shell and typing in it that hurts my eyes. It could be that I'm concentrating that much more on the text on the screen, since it's usually fast data. Like, tail logs on a busy server, or run top with a refresh of 1 or 0. I catch details that other people don't even notice on their machines.
The place in particular I'm referencing was behaving badly on one server when we got together. They were using about 45Mb/s bandwidth, and were always out of CPU and memory. Their old provider insisted that they spend a fortune on new equipment.
We bought a bunch of commodity machines, tweaked things properly, and let it grow.
It scaled out to several cities, due to bandwidth consumption, and approx 150 servers. Usually if I leave the number of servers out when I tell someone all the other details, they assume there were thousands of servers.
When I was Sr. SysAdmin, and their flagship site was in the top 300 sites, according to Alexa. I still consider the only reason that it was technically capable of doing that was because of me. There was no other technical staff above me, or anyone to help. Who do you ask for help? Help, I'm taking almost 10 million uniques a day, or over a billion requests per day. So say an average of 11,000 requests/second. I need to firewall GigE at full line speed, because I can't cost effectively put a firewall device in front of every single machine, and I still need a dozen of them.
Ahhh, the good ol' days. I miss being able to roll our bandwidth around between cities, and watch a city jump up by several hundred Mb/s. Oh, you have a spare OC12? We'll use it, watch this.:)
I doubt even Google would want to host it. But for the majority of sites (like all but the top 500), the rest wouldn't even make a dent in Google's infrastructure, other than needing to hire a few thousand more support folks.
I just started a new job. Well, a job I was at before, but I'm returning as a "new" employee.
Part of the fun was, I needed a new workstation. My old machine had been absorbed back into the pool, and adopted by someone else.
We headed down to CompUSA (yes, closed, and some reopened under TigerDirect). I found an AMD64 3800+ with 512Mb RAM. Since I intended to install Linux on it, that sounded great. We're still ordering more memory, it just hasn't arrived yet.
This machine came with Vista Home on it. For giggles, I let it start up Vista. Shall I say "oh my god" slow. It felt like running Win95 on a 486/66. This nice fast machine was way underpowered. I spent some time looking it over, since my Linux disks were at home (first day, I didn't bring everything with me). 128Mb was shared with the video card, which left 384Mb available. It didn't use more than 344Mb, and wasn't using any swap. I tweaked a few things out, which made it run better, but it was still unbearably slow.
This isn't just some crappy machine. It's brand new, out of the store, and onto my desk. I should rightly expect that it should just work, as any regular consumer would. Not that it will be so unbearably slow that I'll want to throw it away. If I knew I was staying with Vista, I would have refused it.
I shrank the partition that it was running on, and installed Slamd64 in the newly empty space. I didn't even set up swap space, and now it absolutely flies. I haven't even begun any tuning. It's the stock kernel, with just about stock everything. Windows pop open. Everything moves like it's a nice fast machine. The only thing I've run into, which was a known problem, is that there is no flash plugin for the 64 bit Firefox. I installed the 32bit version of Firefox, and still, it runs great.
This would have been a great machine to run XP on. I've done it before with similar machines, with great results. Well, great for Windows.
At this company, things move around a lot, which is why I left Vista on there. At some point, someone else will probably want my machine, and I'll get another one. No problem, then using Vista will be their problem. Until then, I'll be happily running in Linux.:)
How thick is your iron, and how big of a C-4 charge did I put on the outside of it?:)
I may have said I wanted to break the security, but I never said I wanted to preserve the contents.:)
Yesterday, a kid challenged me to solve a Rubik's Cube. He couldn't figure it out, so I said, "it's an engineering problem", took it apart, and put it back together. Maybe he'll learn to define the rules of a challenge better next time.
How many Scientologists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
damn, I don't have a punchline for that.
I'm personally entertained that they *won't* talk to me.
I was looking for work, and there was a scientologist owned company (the owners were scientologists, they weren't "owned" by the organization). My reasoning was, I've worked for a lot of different people who haven't converted me to or from anything, if they're paying a paycheck, I'll work for them.
I showed up for the "interview", and was told there were some papers I needed to fill out. Fine. For past interviews, I've filled out application forms, NDA, etc, etc.
They walked me into their conference room, and put a test in front of me. No big deal, Rackspace gives a personality test as part of their process too. I caught the L. Ron Hubbard name at the bottom, and I had spotted books on Management for Scientologists in the office, but this wasn't quite what I expected for an INTERVIEW. I caught the name of one of the tests on my camera phone while taking the tests.
I'll summarize the tests as, they were a crappy excuse for personality and IQ tests, almost blatantly testing to if I would be easily converted to their cause.
After I got home, I started researching what these tests were, both from questions I remembered, and from the name I caught on my phone.
As I discovered, there are different scoring levels. Basically, the low end is people who are stupid and easily bent, but not worthwhile. The middle 80% is their target audience, with varying levels in the middle. The high end is where I'm sure I landed. While my personality is glowing in person, I'm not easy swayed to things without substantial facts and personal research.:) This high end, they are specifically instructed to have absolutely NO further contact with the individual. Hmmmm, how sad.
Since they didn't reschedule the actual interview where I could talk to the boss (not just the receptionist/secretary), I emailed a week later just asking for my scores, out of curiousity. No response. Another week later, I asked again, no response. So I gave up.
Really, it makes sense. If I got the job there, I may let them tell me all about Scientology, but I'm going to start poking holes in it, and eventually some or most of the people working there are going to start questioning things. You don't need blind faith disciples questioning things. Blind faith is a great thing until it's questioned.
Hey guys, no offense. Everyone believes something, even if they believe in nothing.
Ummm, you don't have to look too hard to find a good working activation patch already, it just isn't distributed by Microsoft.:)
What will mean the death of XP is when WindowsUpdate doesn't provide updates any more, and some lethal exploit is found. But people who can get illegally distributed software are still not 100%.
and...
I kept an old '98 box around for quite a few years. It was a gaming machine hooked to my 32" CRT TV way back in the day. That was fun to play "You Don't Know Jack" with.:) Eventually, it became the sacrificial machine when ISP's said "you must have a Windows machine so we can install your DSL/Cable". I'd plug it in, they'd throw their CD in, and when they left, I unplugged it and tossed it in the corner again.
I'll agree that 95 was better than 3.11, but I still liked 98 better than XP. It was (fairly) stable and handled on much less hardware. All they really had to do was really put an effort into fixing the rest of the bugs, and provide driver support for the newer devices. It didn't take a rewrite, just fixing it properly. But they came out with 2k, XP, Vista, blah, blah, blah. I was happy with 98, but since that was the "other" computer, it didn't matter much. Linux is still my preferred desktop and server.:)
You know, your OpenOffice example is pretty valid.
Several times, people have asked me "Can you get me Office?" I tell them they have a few choices. Pay for it (nope). Get a hacked copy (maybe). Download the perfectly free version that does just about everything you want (yes).
A few people have been bent on "I HAVE TO HAVE MICROSOFT OFFICE", but they're the exception. On shared machines, a few didn't even realize the difference until I pointed it out.
Nah, IF it happened, more companies would spring up offering support for the new found Linux users. It would take a while for the dust to settle, but I'm sure a few good ones would survive. I know some of the big distros already offer it, but the common computer user doesn't know that.
This will be very satisfying. I've had so many people tell me they absolutely HATE Vista, but they're stuck with it when they bought their new computer. They frequently ask me to put XP on, no matter what it takes (buy it, hack it, put their mothers key on).
Killing XP off finally, while I love the idea of killing Windows will really hurt Microsoft. Since people hate Vista so much, they'll start being more open to other options.
Maybe it'll mean friends and family will be asking me to do more Linux installs. I like those better anyways, they go a lot faster and they don't involve 2 hours of install plus 2 days of Windows Updates.
Nah, that was $38 million for the salaries of 6 people, $1 million for the offices and facility, and $1 million for the lightbulb.
But, they'll have to mark it up when they sell it to the gov't, so they'll be $2 million each. But imagine the savings!:)
I'm still trying to figure out where to get $40 million in grants or venture capital. I'd bet I could squirt a little argon gas in a glass container and make an arc in the middle of it too, probably with only a staff of 5, and a pretty damn swank office with a pretty damned hot secretary.:)
from their well lit homes,.. watching TV, or.. staring at their computer screen,
to walking outside to their car,
driving from point A to B while watching the road illuminated by their halogen headlights,
and then quickly inside again.:)
Then there's us city dwellers who go from the computer in the darkened room into the kitchen for food with only just enough lights on, and then into the dark bedroom to sleep..:)
I grew up in the country, so I know exactly what you mean though. I do remember the occasionally very dark night, with no moon and overcast so there were no stars, which left you stumbling without a light. Most nights were fine though, once you were outside for a little while.
I believe it's Cadillac's that have huge LED taillights. If I look perfectly straight forward, I'm fine. When I look around (like you're suppose to when you're driving), the flicker drives me nuts.
I use a DLP projector in my house, on a 10'x6' screen (more or less). The flicker isn't too bad. I noticed it at first, but I guess I've gotten lazy, and watch the middle of the screen more than anything. I'm sure it hasn't gone away, I just don't notice the color separation any more. Then again, I was watching for any tiny irregularity when I first set it up, now I just enjoy a better than movie theater quality in my own house. I can see the screen from the kitchen and my outdoor smoking lounge, so I don't even miss anything when I get up for popcorn or a cigarette. If they provided that, and no annoying talkers, in the movie theater, I may consider going to one again. Well, if they didn't charge so damned much.
I hit the gas driving through a parking lot. When I let off the gas a little, it didn't stop accelerating.
It wasn't a big mystery though. It was a TBI engine (throttle body on top of the engine, like a carburator). The wing nut that held the air cleaner on had stripped, and came off. When I hit the gas, the top of the air cleaner got wedged under the throttle linkage. I threw it in neutral, and shut off the key. It took me a while to get the air cleaner top out, because it was a van, and the engine was hot.
But that doesn't have much to do with the topic, does it..:)
I've been in and out of hospitals, never for myself luckily. Since I smoke, they get used to the fact I'll be outside every hour for a smoke break. Sometimes more often if I need to make a phone call.
Usually they're cautious when I first enter, and then they remember me on subsequent entrances, so I moved around without problems.
It's easier to tailgate in with a group who looks like they belong there. But if you want to be slick, getting in the door with a reason to walk into any room, a janitor is the way to go. You may know you want to walk out with a device, but do you already know what room it's stored in? It may take a few days of keeping your eyes open to spot the target, even if you already know the department it should be in.
One particular government run hospital was too easy. I got lost, and as long as I looked like I knew where I was going, no one asked me anything. And oddly enough, that was up to a cardiology ward. I was looking for a person, not a device, but it took 3 different floors, and several wards to find the right place. He was happy we showed up though.
Slashdot Mirror
My friends, their friends, and their friends (like, people I've never heard of), always end up coming to me for this same advice.
:)
:)
Sometimes I give/sell them parts out of my garage, because their old equipment also somehow ends up in my garage.
I tend to like SuperMicro equipment, so if you have a few bucks to spend, go find yourself a nice SuperMicro 1u. But since this is your personal machine, and you don't have a huge budget, you'll have to shop like I do.
Check out the VisionMan machines on tigerdirect.com. For about $550, you can get a 2Ghz dual core with 1Gb RAM, 2 160Gb SATA drives
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/search.asp?page=2&mnf=1286&sort=Price%20asc
I haven't bought any yet, but if I ever run out of parts in my garage for new servers, I'll probably buy one.
You can always go browsing on eBay. Sometimes you'll find a good deal, but generally you're not going to get much decent for under $500. There are resellers on there all the time, who grab up anything cheap (or bid them up to over $500), that they're going to sell to their customers. If you do, be cautious of home built machines. They're the best thing in the world if they're done right, but if they weren't, you can experience lots of nasty problems. Like, if there isn't enough air flow, the CPU can overheat, and in a week or two you may end up looking for a new machine again.
I was building my own 1u machines for quite a while. When we approached 1Ghz, I had to start doing some special cooling. After that, since the company was making good money, it was cost effective to get the SuperMicro machines.
The final option is... I needed an incoming mail server to filter viruses and spam. This was a rather urgent matter, and I didn't really have time to go through my garage piecing a machine together and test it. I also didn't have time to order anything. I went down to CompUSA (they re-opened close to my house), and picked up an eMachines AMD64 with 1Gb ram for $250. It's a tower case, but if I felt ambitious (which I didn't that night), I could have easily rebuilt it into a spare 2u case. The memory was not seated well when I unboxed it, but that's the only problem that it's had so far, and it's been running hard for a few weeks.
Well, there are a lot of people who do alternative things.
On a few mail installations I've done, it watches for abusers, and blocks them with firewall rules, based on other detections including SpamAssassin.
So even my own mail system would block gmail if it detects enough spam coming from them. The threshold is high enough to not false, and low enough to stop most of the badguys. On a typical server (~50k msg/day) something like 1500 get blocked daily, with no complaints that real mail is being blocked.
If Google is sending spam out, it's very likely they'll be tripped up by thousands of networks world wide, who have their own precautions in place like I do.
Not to sound like a ass, but....
You could do this with a camcorders, and any of dozens of webcam apps. As long as they archive the footage, you're ok. Some of the programs will record video if there's movement.
I had a nice Windows app, but I can't seem to find it right now. Just search for "webcam", and try some out.
For the camcorders themselves, hit eBay or your local pawn shop. Get a resolution that's satisfactory to you.
For the capture device, get a BT8x8 chipset card. I'm not even going to attempt to suggest which one, since they're all pretty much the same, except for the price tag. You should be able to get one pretty cheap.
That'd give you a base. Now it's up to you to expand from there. Maybe a better capture card would do better for you.
I know most people are going to frown upon me posting a Windows solution. Usually I would too. There are far more Windows webcam apps that work, than for the *nix crowd. I don't like Windows, but when I was looking in the past, this is what I found, and I had been determined to use my Linux machine. There's no one to fault but the developers who aren't writing for Linux.
We (my ex-employer) had a site set up that "streamed" video with Webcam32. Ya, it was FTP, frame by frame, but the javascript gave the illusion of motion. This was a long time ago, and basically that's all we did. Commodity cameras (cheapest Sony handycam from Walmart). Commodity cards (any BT8x8 chipset card), and a crappy Windows PC, so they could use it as a workstation also.
Someone shot out the windows of a friend's store. The police took a report and abandon it. He asked me to have a look at the "video". It was basically a PC with 4 cameras attached. The resolution was too rough to read the license plate of the shooter's vehicle, or even give a definite make and model. It took me hours to go through and find the right place on the "video". When I did, we were able to make out that it was a white pickup truck, with blue neon lights underneath, and something written in white on the back window.
The store employees recognized that as possibly being one guy, except they weren't sure about the lights. We went to his house that night, and shot video under the truck showing the lights. I compiled the "video" from the security system, and made a data disk of the whole thing.
The police made an arrest the next day. With what we provided, they got a search warrant, and found the same caliber handgun under his driver seat as the bullets in the wall. He immediately confessed, and admitted to doing it to 3 other businesses that night too. Apparently ours was the only "evidence". Although I volunteered to testify in court about how I compiled the data, because of his confession there was no trial.
I'd recommend the system you're looking to build, versus the "professional" system. At least you can tune it up as needed. Their system was a fixed configuration, so we were really stuck. The interface was painful at best. It would lock up, get confused to where I was looking, drop to other cameras, etc, etc, etc. I didn't have access to just look at the filesystem, and since we were looking at evidence, I didn't want to rip it apart and try to mount it's drives in another machine.
It won't be until we actually get out there, that we find out.
... ummm ... a whole bunch of galaxies. Once again applying the same logic for the size of the universe, and the length of time, there are very likely other species out there that not only have survived the life-cap, but have accomplished intergalactic travel. I wouldn't be surprised to find that there are intergalactic travelers who look at such a trip like a drive to the grocery store. Now, would they want to try to communicate with something as lowly as us? Ha, those silly humans haven't even made it beyond their own moon.
If it's 1.4 per galaxy, and there are
I've been watching my subether signaling device for many years now. Still nothing. No one wants to come around here, and risk getting nuked for being an evil alien. We're broadcasting enough TV out there, every species that comes around here knows what humans think of anything not originally from Earth. Well, for that matter, humans don't seem to like things that ARE from Earth either. Plants, animals, and even other humans are all fair game for killing.
That's what I was wondering.
:) Really, people aren't doing ecommerce items from their phone. I get annoyed having to type more than 3 or 4 characters. People get short emails from me on the phone, and long ones from a mail client.
I saw a reply to you, where they were talking about the chain cert. As long as you're not chaining, it's a piece of cake.
I've helped a few people with their chained certs. Sometimes THAT is a pain, because sometimes you have to BEG for the intermediary cert.
I've been buying cheap certs for years for a few things I do. Give the credit card, the drop an email to something resembling administrative at your domain, and then you get the cert.
There was some mention about mobile devices. No one has mentioned if they do or don't work to me.
I just tried my largest site from my blackberry. I got the message:
"The server certificate is not trusted by your handheld. Would you like to continue with the connection, close the connection, or view the certificate for more information?"
[Continue]
[Close]
[View Cert]
[Don't ask again]
In viewing my cert, it says:
x freeinternetpress.com
* ntrusted Cert Chain
*Unkonwn Chain Status
Revocation Status: Unknown
Trust Status: Not Trusted
Expiration Date: Wed, Nov 19, 2008 11:41:17
Certificate Type: X509
Public Key Type: RSA 1024
Subject: freeinternetpress.com
OU=380674343
OU=See www.rapidssl.com/resources/cps (c)07
OU=Domain Control Validated - RapidSSL(R)
O=freeinternetpress.com
C=NA
CN=Equifax Secure Global eBusiness CA-1
O=Equifax Secure Inc.
C=US
Serial Number: 06FC DB
ok, that's enough typing.
For the news site, SSL is for protecting the logins, submitting news, etc.. If the users want to go secure, they're given the option. Most of the users never do though.
I've had the passing glance at some of those ads. Some you can pay for with PayPal and credit cards.
I don't know if I'd trust that "vendor" with a credit card though. I'm a bit concerned to where it would be swiped.
I'd be willing to bet, some of the more computer adept "vendors" would take PayPal. Do you want that paper trail though? Cash is always best for those moments you don't need haunting you in the future. When I run for president in 2012, I wouldn't want that found. Of course, I'll legalize a few things so it wouldn't matter.
You have to consider where we are..
We are in a large galaxy, in an infinitely sized universe, in an infinite length time period.
In our infinitely sized universe, we are one of an infinite number of number of galaxies.
In those galaxies, there are a finite number of stars (oh my gosh, that's limiting). Assume our galaxy may be average, with over 200 billion stars. Assume the average star has 8 satellites, and at least 4 are in an orbit close enough to the star to sustain life as we know it.
Just in our galaxy, that makes our little star 1 in 400,000,000,000.
Now, multiple the number of planets that may hold life by infinity.
But, why should we believe that all life has a common starting point (please don't bring up theology in this discussion). There is an infinite time line that life and even civilizations could have come and gone.
I seriously doubt that we are the lone intelligent life in this galaxy. There may have already been civilizations that have come and gone, or that haven't even started yet.
In the universe? It's incomprehensible that we could be alone. We had dumb luck on this planet, and I'm sure it's happened elsewhere too.
The question for encountering aliens would be...
If they exist now, how far away are they? I doubt they're parked behind the moon, waiting for an invitation. Maybe we're so far away from them, that no matter how much noise we make, we're undetectable. From the other side of the galaxy, we're just a faint dot. From galaxies over, they could only theorize that we're here.
It's perfectly possible though that this same conversation is happening in another galaxy, and someone there would say "but we're the only ones. There is no other life.", and we'll continue not to find out.
I think our best chance for a kick start into advancing ourselves would be to start exploring. In time, I suspect we would find artifacts of civilizations which have passed close to here before, and that may give us a bit more information on where to go and how to find others.
For now, we haven't made any serious progress off this rock, and the current social and political environments aren't pushing for the serious advancement of our own space travel to find out.
I haven't used a radar detector in a long time, because in my area they were using switched radar units. I had a better chance of visually spotting a speed trap than detecting it first. One thing I had observed though was, some of my radar detectors would have false alarms because of other radar detectors. Some of my friends and I had tested it, where we'd turn our units on and off to see who's would set off false alarms based on who's units. We concluded that yes, some units would make other units beep that there was a radar source present.
The same applied to some home alarms, and automatic doors. I had more false alarms than real detection, which was another good reason to stop using them.
Building a GPS receiver detector would be a bit trickier, because the designs are so varied. I would think the best way to detect one would be a wide radio spectrum analyzer, and a very careful examination of the object you think may have a tracker on it. I believe you'd be looking for the same or similar frequency as the GPS signal is, and you'd always have some signal from the satellites. A very directional antenna may help.
It was my understanding that every cell phone sold in the last few years had GPS capability for e911 service, although they may disable the GPS service for any user interfaces.
I found this page which says Verizon Wireless has GPS service in all wireless voice devices, to assist 911 operators in finding a victim. I know this isn't exactly true though. My stepson had a medical emergency about a year ago in the car (see my journal). I called 911 from my Verizon Wireless phone. I knew what road I was on, but since I was in the middle of my trip, I wasn't absolutely sure what the last exit I passed was. I gave the road, direction of travel, side of the road I stopped on, and a close reference to the nearby exits. I gave it to them within a couple miles. I was on the side of an interstate, with clear view of the sky in all directions, and there hadn't been any clouds in the sky all day. You can't ask for better reception for GPS.
We waited 15 minutes, with no callback and no emergency vehicles showing up. I gave up, decided he was stable enough to transport, strapped him back in the car, and drove as fast as I could for help. There was one of the radar speed signs on the side of the road, which flashed 99 as I passed it. I was going for help, and would have been satisfied to get pulled over.
I found a deputy with a DUI pulled over, and he helped us. He called for an ambulance, and apparently emergency ops didn't know where we were. No one had been dispatched.
While I like to stroke my own ego, I've been questioned on my experience over the years at various interviews. A few times, we've gone line item by line item, and I've explained each one with technical detail.
I ran a huge server farm with one of the top traffic web sites, along with thousands of other sites. Anyone saying that scaling is impossible or even that difficult hasn't done it before. If someone asked me how to, or if it was possible, before I did it, I would have been terrified. Now that I've done it several times, I can help anyone scale their project. Well, assuming they're willing to make a few changes along the way.
Ok, that post was for fun.
For my shells, that I stare at for hours, I use:
green on black
yellow on black
white on black
It's usually green on black. I use yellow on black for special shells (like when I'm using a lot of shells with cssh). Putty defaults to white on black, so when I'm stuck in Windows land, that's it.
Any shells that default to black on white, I switch immediately. It's not so bad in a web browser, but there's something about a shell and typing in it that hurts my eyes. It could be that I'm concentrating that much more on the text on the screen, since it's usually fast data. Like, tail logs on a busy server, or run top with a refresh of 1 or 0. I catch details that other people don't even notice on their machines.
Yellow on red seems like a very popular high contrast color combination for several years.
But, what you describe isn't all that hard..
Been there. Done that. Have the t-shirt.
The place in particular I'm referencing was behaving badly on one server when we got together. They were using about 45Mb/s bandwidth, and were always out of CPU and memory. Their old provider insisted that they spend a fortune on new equipment.
We bought a bunch of commodity machines, tweaked things properly, and let it grow.
It scaled out to several cities, due to bandwidth consumption, and approx 150 servers. Usually if I leave the number of servers out when I tell someone all the other details, they assume there were thousands of servers.
When I was Sr. SysAdmin, and their flagship site was in the top 300 sites, according to Alexa. I still consider the only reason that it was technically capable of doing that was because of me. There was no other technical staff above me, or anyone to help. Who do you ask for help? Help, I'm taking almost 10 million uniques a day, or over a billion requests per day. So say an average of 11,000 requests/second. I need to firewall GigE at full line speed, because I can't cost effectively put a firewall device in front of every single machine, and I still need a dozen of them.
Ahhh, the good ol' days. I miss being able to roll our bandwidth around between cities, and watch a city jump up by several hundred Mb/s. Oh, you have a spare OC12? We'll use it, watch this.
I doubt even Google would want to host it. But for the majority of sites (like all but the top 500), the rest wouldn't even make a dent in Google's infrastructure, other than needing to hire a few thousand more support folks.
I just started a new job. Well, a job I was at before, but I'm returning as a "new" employee.
:)
Part of the fun was, I needed a new workstation. My old machine had been absorbed back into the pool, and adopted by someone else.
We headed down to CompUSA (yes, closed, and some reopened under TigerDirect). I found an AMD64 3800+ with 512Mb RAM. Since I intended to install Linux on it, that sounded great. We're still ordering more memory, it just hasn't arrived yet.
This machine came with Vista Home on it. For giggles, I let it start up Vista. Shall I say "oh my god" slow. It felt like running Win95 on a 486/66. This nice fast machine was way underpowered. I spent some time looking it over, since my Linux disks were at home (first day, I didn't bring everything with me). 128Mb was shared with the video card, which left 384Mb available. It didn't use more than 344Mb, and wasn't using any swap. I tweaked a few things out, which made it run better, but it was still unbearably slow.
This isn't just some crappy machine. It's brand new, out of the store, and onto my desk. I should rightly expect that it should just work, as any regular consumer would. Not that it will be so unbearably slow that I'll want to throw it away. If I knew I was staying with Vista, I would have refused it.
I shrank the partition that it was running on, and installed Slamd64 in the newly empty space. I didn't even set up swap space, and now it absolutely flies. I haven't even begun any tuning. It's the stock kernel, with just about stock everything. Windows pop open. Everything moves like it's a nice fast machine. The only thing I've run into, which was a known problem, is that there is no flash plugin for the 64 bit Firefox. I installed the 32bit version of Firefox, and still, it runs great.
This would have been a great machine to run XP on. I've done it before with similar machines, with great results. Well, great for Windows.
At this company, things move around a lot, which is why I left Vista on there. At some point, someone else will probably want my machine, and I'll get another one. No problem, then using Vista will be their problem. Until then, I'll be happily running in Linux.
How thick is your iron, and how big of a C-4 charge did I put on the outside of it?
I may have said I wanted to break the security, but I never said I wanted to preserve the contents.
Yesterday, a kid challenged me to solve a Rubik's Cube. He couldn't figure it out, so I said, "it's an engineering problem", took it apart, and put it back together. Maybe he'll learn to define the rules of a challenge better next time.
Was it something like...
:) This high end, they are specifically instructed to have absolutely NO further contact with the individual. Hmmmm, how sad.
How many Scientologists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
damn, I don't have a punchline for that.
I'm personally entertained that they *won't* talk to me.
I was looking for work, and there was a scientologist owned company (the owners were scientologists, they weren't "owned" by the organization). My reasoning was, I've worked for a lot of different people who haven't converted me to or from anything, if they're paying a paycheck, I'll work for them.
I showed up for the "interview", and was told there were some papers I needed to fill out. Fine. For past interviews, I've filled out application forms, NDA, etc, etc.
They walked me into their conference room, and put a test in front of me. No big deal, Rackspace gives a personality test as part of their process too. I caught the L. Ron Hubbard name at the bottom, and I had spotted books on Management for Scientologists in the office, but this wasn't quite what I expected for an INTERVIEW. I caught the name of one of the tests on my camera phone while taking the tests.
I'll summarize the tests as, they were a crappy excuse for personality and IQ tests, almost blatantly testing to if I would be easily converted to their cause.
After I got home, I started researching what these tests were, both from questions I remembered, and from the name I caught on my phone.
As I discovered, there are different scoring levels. Basically, the low end is people who are stupid and easily bent, but not worthwhile. The middle 80% is their target audience, with varying levels in the middle. The high end is where I'm sure I landed. While my personality is glowing in person, I'm not easy swayed to things without substantial facts and personal research.
Since they didn't reschedule the actual interview where I could talk to the boss (not just the receptionist/secretary), I emailed a week later just asking for my scores, out of curiousity. No response. Another week later, I asked again, no response. So I gave up.
Really, it makes sense. If I got the job there, I may let them tell me all about Scientology, but I'm going to start poking holes in it, and eventually some or most of the people working there are going to start questioning things. You don't need blind faith disciples questioning things. Blind faith is a great thing until it's questioned.
Hey guys, no offense. Everyone believes something, even if they believe in nothing.
Ummm, you don't have to look too hard to find a good working activation patch already, it just isn't distributed by Microsoft.
What will mean the death of XP is when WindowsUpdate doesn't provide updates any more, and some lethal exploit is found. But people who can get illegally distributed software are still not 100%.
and...
I kept an old '98 box around for quite a few years. It was a gaming machine hooked to my 32" CRT TV way back in the day. That was fun to play "You Don't Know Jack" with.
I'll agree that 95 was better than 3.11, but I still liked 98 better than XP. It was (fairly) stable and handled on much less hardware. All they really had to do was really put an effort into fixing the rest of the bugs, and provide driver support for the newer devices. It didn't take a rewrite, just fixing it properly. But they came out with 2k, XP, Vista, blah, blah, blah. I was happy with 98, but since that was the "other" computer, it didn't matter much. Linux is still my preferred desktop and server.
You know, your OpenOffice example is pretty valid.
Several times, people have asked me "Can you get me Office?" I tell them they have a few choices. Pay for it (nope). Get a hacked copy (maybe). Download the perfectly free version that does just about everything you want (yes).
A few people have been bent on "I HAVE TO HAVE MICROSOFT OFFICE", but they're the exception. On shared machines, a few didn't even realize the difference until I pointed it out.
Nah, IF it happened, more companies would spring up offering support for the new found Linux users. It would take a while for the dust to settle, but I'm sure a few good ones would survive. I know some of the big distros already offer it, but the common computer user doesn't know that.
This will be very satisfying. I've had so many people tell me they absolutely HATE Vista, but they're stuck with it when they bought their new computer. They frequently ask me to put XP on, no matter what it takes (buy it, hack it, put their mothers key on).
Killing XP off finally, while I love the idea of killing Windows will really hurt Microsoft. Since people hate Vista so much, they'll start being more open to other options.
Maybe it'll mean friends and family will be asking me to do more Linux installs. I like those better anyways, they go a lot faster and they don't involve 2 hours of install plus 2 days of Windows Updates.
Nah, that was $38 million for the salaries of 6 people, $1 million for the offices and facility, and $1 million for the lightbulb.
:)
:)
But, they'll have to mark it up when they sell it to the gov't, so they'll be $2 million each. But imagine the savings!
I'm still trying to figure out where to get $40 million in grants or venture capital. I'd bet I could squirt a little argon gas in a glass container and make an arc in the middle of it too, probably with only a staff of 5, and a pretty damn swank office with a pretty damned hot secretary.
You forget, most city dwellers go ...
.. watching TV, or .. staring at their computer screen,
:)
:)
from their well lit homes,
to walking outside to their car,
driving from point A to B while watching the road illuminated by their halogen headlights,
and then quickly inside again.
Then there's us city dwellers who go from the computer in the darkened room into the kitchen for food with only just enough lights on, and then into the dark bedroom to sleep..
I grew up in the country, so I know exactly what you mean though. I do remember the occasionally very dark night, with no moon and overcast so there were no stars, which left you stumbling without a light. Most nights were fine though, once you were outside for a little while.
I thought it was just me.
I believe it's Cadillac's that have huge LED taillights. If I look perfectly straight forward, I'm fine. When I look around (like you're suppose to when you're driving), the flicker drives me nuts.
I use a DLP projector in my house, on a 10'x6' screen (more or less). The flicker isn't too bad. I noticed it at first, but I guess I've gotten lazy, and watch the middle of the screen more than anything. I'm sure it hasn't gone away, I just don't notice the color separation any more. Then again, I was watching for any tiny irregularity when I first set it up, now I just enjoy a better than movie theater quality in my own house. I can see the screen from the kitchen and my outdoor smoking lounge, so I don't even miss anything when I get up for popcorn or a cigarette. If they provided that, and no annoying talkers, in the movie theater, I may consider going to one again. Well, if they didn't charge so damned much.
What's funny is, this happened to me once.
I hit the gas driving through a parking lot. When I let off the gas a little, it didn't stop accelerating.
It wasn't a big mystery though. It was a TBI engine (throttle body on top of the engine, like a carburator). The wing nut that held the air cleaner on had stripped, and came off. When I hit the gas, the top of the air cleaner got wedged under the throttle linkage. I threw it in neutral, and shut off the key. It took me a while to get the air cleaner top out, because it was a van, and the engine was hot.
But that doesn't have much to do with the topic, does it..
I was being nice.
I've been in and out of hospitals, never for myself luckily. Since I smoke, they get used to the fact I'll be outside every hour for a smoke break. Sometimes more often if I need to make a phone call.
Usually they're cautious when I first enter, and then they remember me on subsequent entrances, so I moved around without problems.
It's easier to tailgate in with a group who looks like they belong there. But if you want to be slick, getting in the door with a reason to walk into any room, a janitor is the way to go. You may know you want to walk out with a device, but do you already know what room it's stored in? It may take a few days of keeping your eyes open to spot the target, even if you already know the department it should be in.
One particular government run hospital was too easy. I got lost, and as long as I looked like I knew where I was going, no one asked me anything. And oddly enough, that was up to a cardiology ward. I was looking for a person, not a device, but it took 3 different floors, and several wards to find the right place. He was happy we showed up though.