Blue LEDs only came around when the right formulation was engineered.
They emit some ultraviolet light, which finds them an application as white LEDs when surrounded by flourescent material that fills in the rest of the spectrum.
You make your resume exactly following traditional formats, and you make it easy to read and pick out the important points.
Why? Because you don't care about HR after you start working at a company. The resume is supposed to get you the interview, not filter out companies you wouldn't want to work for. The interview is where you talk to the management and co-workers, and get the idea of what the company is like. HR people are very likely clueless to what anything on your resume means, and can't be bothered to sift through a confusing resume.
Do as I say, not as I do! My resume is sorely in need of major work.
I like it because I've used it. But it does have very powerful DSP tools, controls simulation (Simulink!!!), ability to code anything you need or buy it, also interfaces to external device through the serial port (for example), and allows you to develop algorithms for embedded systems.
Never had to use it for much besides 36-hour suicide class project marathons, but it was reliable and easy to work with.
That's what I meant when I said this wasn't the ideal situation, compared to a switching DC-DC converter. Of course that's the obvious most efficient solution, and the one that others have linked to at high prices.
The fact remains that you aren't going to build a very good switching DC-DC converter for as low as you could buy an inverter. Show me a $20 car-to-PC-motherboard switching supply schematic, and I'll believe you.
Re:[ The Applications Thread ]
on
Thin, Flat LEDs
·
· Score: 1
Not if they reply as Anonymous.
Any clue? I mean, seriously, that was a good application idea for ultra-bright, paper-thin LED elements.
Re:[ The Applications Thread ]
on
Thin, Flat LEDs
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
Perhaps the moderator could remind me why this is offtopic?
[ The Applications Thread ]
on
Thin, Flat LEDs
·
· Score: 2, Offtopic
I submit:
1. New aerodynamic automobile turn signal, running, and brake lights. They'll be smoothed right into the paint surface.
You know your kung-foo well enough to do what you have done, in your "spare" time. I think independent projects help prove that you really do have the skills, and weren't just a tagalong on some work-related project.
Anything you can do to make your resume look better, makes you more formidable as my opponent.;-)
When you do get an interview, the immediate supervisors and potential co-workers are usually the most interested in your projects. I've had interviews where the bulk of the interview questions involved independent projects.
However, I haven't had too many interviews recently...so maybe employers are more interested in the number of years you worked for someone.
It's difficult to tell. But it does look like they patented the concept of having a discussion board linked to a product.
I should probably go ahead and patent "A method for mass advertising using electronic messaging to a group of recipients" and go for the spammers. But there there isn't much money in repo'd trailer houses.
A switching power supply is vastly more efficient than a linear power supply.
In order to get 5 volts from ~12 volts, spending no more than $10, you use a voltage regulator chip. However, I honestly don't think you'll find a voltage regulator IC that can handle the 10 or so amps required for a low-end motherboard: the Radio Shack variety don't even handle an amp. It will also be horribly inefficient: 42% efficient in fact (has to dump those 7 extra volts somewhere).
Add to this the fact that you can't use passive components to regulate 12 volts to 12 volts. You'll want to keep the voltage from going up to the 13.6 volts found when the car is running, but any regulation circuitry takes the voltage below 12. Typically you need a supply several volts above your desired regulated level.
The circuits you built in high school aren't going to be helpful here.
On the other hand, a switching power supply uses a high voltage, high frequency transformer to minimize loss and dump energy to the load, not to a regulator. An inverter and then a small switching power supply may not be as ideal as DC-AC-DC supply, but will be more efficient than linear voltage regulation and provide more protection for the computer. And big capacitors is not necessarily a good sign: just means the designer had to use them to get smooth power.
Power inverters aren't expensive either...if you know where to look. I once bought four 100 watt inverters on eBay, for $5 each. I had an AC outlet mounted in my car console years ago, before I crashed that one.:(
I agree...but it only make the human race look like 5,999,000,000 savages scrabbling in the dirt. Do we even have 1,000,000 people in the world capable of doing something like this?
Maybe around the year 2300, if something along the lines of the Matrix occurs (however unlikely).
Plenty of room for Matrix plotline expansion if the dodging-bullets-in-the-Matrix thing gets old: let's see how far the AI has gone in terms of space research. Would make it pretty interesting if an alien race began attacking Earth because they viewed it as a hostile Borg-like planet. Perhaps some of the less hostile AI, which we get to see in some of the upcoming sequels, would join forces with the humans to defend the planet.
Anyway...it's not my job to come up with plot devices and make Hollywood any more money!
It's 7.6 billion miles away. Almost 12 hours at the speed of light. And it will take two million years to reach a star considered to be in our close neighborood.
Incomprehensible space...it's incredibly daunting, yet unbelievably appealing. Pioneer 10 was sent out in the same spirit as the pioneers of early America: the lure of seemingly boundless space and undiscovered wonders.
This pioneer is blazing a trail we all hope to follow someday. Goodbye Pioneer 10, you have served us well.
Under the guise of enlightenment, so many people are willing to tell you that the Bible is worthless and meaningless. Yet few of them will tell you to go read it yourself, and make your own decision. As one of the most enduring and popular works of literature in existence, it certainly deserves a read-through by anyone.
The popular media and culture encourages you to scoff at the Bible and those who read and believe it. Ask yourself this: are you being brainwashed to discount the Bible, without ever reading it yourself? Why should you accept at face value everything the mass media wants to tell you?
In your new Bible study, I suggest that you read the Old Testament and New Testament as what they are: a description of events in a "before and after" relationship. People claim the Bible is full of vengeance against unbelievers, bloody wars, and hatred; it is, and that's part of how life was in the Old Testament days. The New Testament describes a very different approach of peace and forgiveness.
"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise."
Considering how that's been around for thousands of years, interesting that no one's really done much about it until now. Maybe no one thinks they're a sluggard.;-)
I am willing in the utmost confidence and secret to help your with some certain relaying needs. My server does waits idle at my residence in an yet to be disclosed location, ready to relay your messages to the considerate masses. In exchange for your sum of $20 per month, my server will confidentiality flood the Internet with your excellent offerings.
I can personally and utmost attest to guarantee that you messages will pass through entire unaltered, and not be redirected to/dev/null, or replaced with the text "I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR X PERCENT OF ALL YOUR SPAM" and your home address & phone number. I would most certainly not monitor every spam you attempted to send at your discretion, and report each and every instance to the immediately authorities.
I trust you to and maintain the highest level of integrity & confidence in this matter.
--- Ham Nbu Jahir, Supreme Commander of Nigerian National Space Fleet
I'm not too hot on the mesh networking idea, mostly because people who want high latency can get that via satellite.
Don't have anything else useful to add to the discussion, except:
now that the number of wireless devices is set to explode.
With all the English-as-second-language writing I encounter every day, that sentence is nearly enough for me to play it safe and not buy that new 802.11b card.
Bah! Xilinx rules! Ours had VGA, serial, and PS/2 ports as well. Of course, my opinion on this has nothing to do with the fact that Bernie Vonderschmitt is a graduate of my school: the guy who came up with the idea of the FPGA in the first place, and started Xilinx.
For receiving HDTV signals wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a tuner and put a high end vidio capture card in your PC? Control the tuner using LIRC for an integrated system.
Might be cheaper to do that for HDTV.
But would the same setup be able to do broadcast TV, cable TV, slow-scan satellite feeds, AM and FM commercial broadcast, ham radio, weather radio, police and other emergency bands, shortwave, CB, and whatever else exists?
If the software radio can do all of the above, many would jump at the opportunity to pay only $1,300 for the necessary piece of hardware.
If they ever get transmit capabilities, this will be a seriously wicked piece of technology (ignoring the impossibility of ever licensing the monster).
Re:I love my Kyocera Smartphone, but...
on
Palm PDA Roundup
·
· Score: 2, Informative
The frequencies generated in portable devices, especially something as overblown as an iPaq, have long been up to radio communications frequencies. Even though the chance is small, the risk of a device jamming communications, transponder, or radar frequencies is not acceptable: in the middle of the night no pilot can avoid the other airliner coming head-on.
It's not just the wireless functions of these devices; those are already sectioned off into approved ranges by the FCC. It's the internal processors, high-speed square pulses with lots of harmonics all over the spectrum.
Maybe if devices were all reliably shielded to eliminate RF emissions, this wouldn't be an issue. Can't ever be sure though, it seems a lot of case modders have no regard for the EMI they're spraying out of those clear case windows.
Once cabin EM shielding is more universal, there won't be as many problems getting to use your devices. Just as long as they can be sure you're not using your phone...it really screws up the cell network to have a phone's signal in a dozen cells at the same time.
By taking this defeatist attitude, you are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The card is $1,300. The reason is economics: people do not buy them in mass quantities, therefore they are rare and expensive. These cards are typically used in fringe high-tech situations, and honestly $1,300 is an awfully good deal considering what the same capabilities would have cost five or ten years ago.
If the card is already down to $1,300, instead of $13,000 or $130,000, the price can be reduced to $130. Once software radio becomes a demanded product, the push to increase production will make the cards more available.
Again, if you want to play around with cutting-edge tech, the card is pretty inexpensive. I've been dealing with high-speed video vendors who want $60,000 for essentially an overclocked VCR. And that's half of what they cost ten years ago.
These guys have done something few are able to do: take an idea and actually follow it to completion. The first personal computers weren't cheap enough to give away in cereal boxes either, so give this some time and encouragement.
Slashdot Mirror
The white LED is actually a blue LED.
Blue LEDs only came around when the right formulation was engineered.
They emit some ultraviolet light, which finds them an application as white LEDs when surrounded by flourescent material that fills in the rest of the spectrum.
Sadly and horribly untrue.
You make your resume exactly following traditional formats, and you make it easy to read and pick out the important points.
Why? Because you don't care about HR after you start working at a company. The resume is supposed to get you the interview, not filter out companies you wouldn't want to work for. The interview is where you talk to the management and co-workers, and get the idea of what the company is like. HR people are very likely clueless to what anything on your resume means, and can't be bothered to sift through a confusing resume.
Do as I say, not as I do! My resume is sorely in need of major work.
I like it because I've used it. But it does have very powerful DSP tools, controls simulation (Simulink!!!), ability to code anything you need or buy it, also interfaces to external device through the serial port (for example), and allows you to develop algorithms for embedded systems.
Never had to use it for much besides 36-hour suicide class project marathons, but it was reliable and easy to work with.
That's what I meant when I said this wasn't the ideal situation, compared to a switching DC-DC converter. Of course that's the obvious most efficient solution, and the one that others have linked to at high prices.
The fact remains that you aren't going to build a very good switching DC-DC converter for as low as you could buy an inverter. Show me a $20 car-to-PC-motherboard switching supply schematic, and I'll believe you.
Not if they reply as Anonymous.
Any clue? I mean, seriously, that was a good application idea for ultra-bright, paper-thin LED elements.
Perhaps the moderator could remind me why this is offtopic?
I submit:
1. New aerodynamic automobile turn signal, running, and brake lights. They'll be smoothed right into the paint surface.
Employers are interested in what you can do.
;-)
You know your kung-foo well enough to do what you have done, in your "spare" time. I think independent projects help prove that you really do have the skills, and weren't just a tagalong on some work-related project.
Anything you can do to make your resume look better, makes you more formidable as my opponent.
When you do get an interview, the immediate supervisors and potential co-workers are usually the most interested in your projects. I've had interviews where the bulk of the interview questions involved independent projects.
However, I haven't had too many interviews recently...so maybe employers are more interested in the number of years you worked for someone.
It's difficult to tell. But it does look like they patented the concept of having a discussion board linked to a product.
I should probably go ahead and patent "A method for mass advertising using electronic messaging to a group of recipients" and go for the spammers. But there there isn't much money in repo'd trailer houses.
Look.
:(
A switching power supply is vastly more efficient than a linear power supply.
In order to get 5 volts from ~12 volts, spending no more than $10, you use a voltage regulator chip. However, I honestly don't think you'll find a voltage regulator IC that can handle the 10 or so amps required for a low-end motherboard: the Radio Shack variety don't even handle an amp. It will also be horribly inefficient: 42% efficient in fact (has to dump those 7 extra volts somewhere).
Add to this the fact that you can't use passive components to regulate 12 volts to 12 volts. You'll want to keep the voltage from going up to the 13.6 volts found when the car is running, but any regulation circuitry takes the voltage below 12. Typically you need a supply several volts above your desired regulated level.
The circuits you built in high school aren't going to be helpful here.
On the other hand, a switching power supply uses a high voltage, high frequency transformer to minimize loss and dump energy to the load, not to a regulator. An inverter and then a small switching power supply may not be as ideal as DC-AC-DC supply, but will be more efficient than linear voltage regulation and provide more protection for the computer. And big capacitors is not necessarily a good sign: just means the designer had to use them to get smooth power.
Power inverters aren't expensive either...if you know where to look. I once bought four 100 watt inverters on eBay, for $5 each. I had an AC outlet mounted in my car console years ago, before I crashed that one.
I agree...but it only make the human race look like 5,999,000,000 savages scrabbling in the dirt. Do we even have 1,000,000 people in the world capable of doing something like this?
Maybe around the year 2300, if something along the lines of the Matrix occurs (however unlikely).
Plenty of room for Matrix plotline expansion if the dodging-bullets-in-the-Matrix thing gets old: let's see how far the AI has gone in terms of space research. Would make it pretty interesting if an alien race began attacking Earth because they viewed it as a hostile Borg-like planet. Perhaps some of the less hostile AI, which we get to see in some of the upcoming sequels, would join forces with the humans to defend the planet.
Anyway...it's not my job to come up with plot devices and make Hollywood any more money!
Most pioneers either tried to coexist with the Indians, or cowered and ran away.
It was the armies that came later that wiped out/corraled up the Indians.
Perhaps there are things we have learned from our history, that we will remember not to repeat.
Also, I was talking about the spirit of exploration, not the effects of civilization.
If you take offense at my use of the word civilization, what I mean by it is building farms, houses, and cities.
It's 7.6 billion miles away. Almost 12 hours at the speed of light. And it will take two million years to reach a star considered to be in our close neighborood.
Incomprehensible space...it's incredibly daunting, yet unbelievably appealing. Pioneer 10 was sent out in the same spirit as the pioneers of early America: the lure of seemingly boundless space and undiscovered wonders.
This pioneer is blazing a trail we all hope to follow someday. Goodbye Pioneer 10, you have served us well.
Interesting.
Under the guise of enlightenment, so many people are willing to tell you that the Bible is worthless and meaningless. Yet few of them will tell you to go read it yourself, and make your own decision. As one of the most enduring and popular works of literature in existence, it certainly deserves a read-through by anyone.
The popular media and culture encourages you to scoff at the Bible and those who read and believe it. Ask yourself this: are you being brainwashed to discount the Bible, without ever reading it yourself? Why should you accept at face value everything the mass media wants to tell you?
In your new Bible study, I suggest that you read the Old Testament and New Testament as what they are: a description of events in a "before and after" relationship. People claim the Bible is full of vengeance against unbelievers, bloody wars, and hatred; it is, and that's part of how life was in the Old Testament days. The New Testament describes a very different approach of peace and forgiveness.
"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise."
;-)
Considering how that's been around for thousands of years, interesting that no one's really done much about it until now. Maybe no one thinks they're a sluggard.
To the Man in the Can:
/dev/null, or replaced with the text "I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR X PERCENT OF ALL YOUR SPAM" and your home address & phone number. I would most certainly not monitor every spam you attempted to send at your discretion, and report each and every instance to the immediately authorities.
I am willing in the utmost confidence and secret to help your with some certain relaying needs. My server does waits idle at my residence in an yet to be disclosed location, ready to relay your messages to the considerate masses. In exchange for your sum of $20 per month, my server will confidentiality flood the Internet with your excellent offerings.
I can personally and utmost attest to guarantee that you messages will pass through entire unaltered, and not be redirected to
I trust you to and maintain the highest level of integrity & confidence in this matter.
--- Ham Nbu Jahir, Supreme Commander of Nigerian National Space Fleet
I'm not too hot on the mesh networking idea, mostly because people who want high latency can get that via satellite.
Don't have anything else useful to add to the discussion, except:
now that the number of wireless devices is set to explode.
With all the English-as-second-language writing I encounter every day, that sentence is nearly enough for me to play it safe and not buy that new 802.11b card.
Bah! Xilinx rules! Ours had VGA, serial, and PS/2 ports as well. Of course, my opinion on this has nothing to do with the fact that Bernie Vonderschmitt is a graduate of my school: the guy who came up with the idea of the FPGA in the first place, and started Xilinx.
All I can say is: this is the best use of FPGA technology ever.
For receiving HDTV signals wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a tuner and put a high end vidio capture card in your PC? Control the tuner using LIRC for an integrated system.
Might be cheaper to do that for HDTV.
But would the same setup be able to do broadcast TV, cable TV, slow-scan satellite feeds, AM and FM commercial broadcast, ham radio, weather radio, police and other emergency bands, shortwave, CB, and whatever else exists?
If the software radio can do all of the above, many would jump at the opportunity to pay only $1,300 for the necessary piece of hardware.
If they ever get transmit capabilities, this will be a seriously wicked piece of technology (ignoring the impossibility of ever licensing the monster).
The frequencies generated in portable devices, especially something as overblown as an iPaq, have long been up to radio communications frequencies. Even though the chance is small, the risk of a device jamming communications, transponder, or radar frequencies is not acceptable: in the middle of the night no pilot can avoid the other airliner coming head-on.
It's not just the wireless functions of these devices; those are already sectioned off into approved ranges by the FCC. It's the internal processors, high-speed square pulses with lots of harmonics all over the spectrum.
Maybe if devices were all reliably shielded to eliminate RF emissions, this wouldn't be an issue. Can't ever be sure though, it seems a lot of case modders have no regard for the EMI they're spraying out of those clear case windows.
Once cabin EM shielding is more universal, there won't be as many problems getting to use your devices. Just as long as they can be sure you're not using your phone...it really screws up the cell network to have a phone's signal in a dozen cells at the same time.
"Being a geek's gadget, :) I would recommend you guys to check out this roundup if you are planning to get a new Palm PDA."
This is a first ever: a Slashdot submission from the PDA itself! Now when did they become sentient....
By taking this defeatist attitude, you are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The card is $1,300. The reason is economics: people do not buy them in mass quantities, therefore they are rare and expensive. These cards are typically used in fringe high-tech situations, and honestly $1,300 is an awfully good deal considering what the same capabilities would have cost five or ten years ago.
If the card is already down to $1,300, instead of $13,000 or $130,000, the price can be reduced to $130. Once software radio becomes a demanded product, the push to increase production will make the cards more available.
Again, if you want to play around with cutting-edge tech, the card is pretty inexpensive. I've been dealing with high-speed video vendors who want $60,000 for essentially an overclocked VCR. And that's half of what they cost ten years ago.
These guys have done something few are able to do: take an idea and actually follow it to completion. The first personal computers weren't cheap enough to give away in cereal boxes either, so give this some time and encouragement.
What next, selling old people on eBay as collectibles?