Mmmm...that's not all bad. Once I found a genuine, pristine Simpson analog multimeter...mirrored scale, all the necessary features, and great to look at. All that and the tangy scent of Bakelite, for just ten dollars.
Of course there's the time I found a barely used HP professional-grade inkjet printer for $20.
But these times are few, many people are hanging on to old hardware a lot longer now. Good time to check the thrift stores is a couple weeks after Christmas.
I remember, back in the PC boom when Gateway was running those ads in Computer Shopper soap-opera style, that someone came up with a similar idea.
The laptop computer had just gotten usable (sort of), and business users were taking work on the road. Normally the cube jungle and office walls are fine to protect data from prying eyes, but laptop screens were a real concern.
The solution was...a solution, which you wiped onto your laptop screen, intended to strip off the last polarizing layer. This last layer is what made sense of the supertwist LCD displays. The kit came with a pair of polarized glasses to prevent anyone else from seeing your screen; to them, it looked like a blank white display. Of course they addressed the issue of normal polarized sunglasses allowing circumvention...their glasses needed to be polarized at right angles to normal sunglass polarization. Of course this doesn't keep people with normal sunglasses from simply rotating the glasses, or their head, 90 degrees.
I never saw the point. Once enough people have the glasses, it's just like having an open display again, except less convenient to use.
There's a reason it never took off in the years since it was first invented.
I recently toured at a major manufacturer of airbag controls...definitely a very critical and defect sensitive operation. Approximately 3 million parts are placed every day at this facility.
The floors have conductive particles embedded in them, all employees are required to wear either two ESD sole straps or take advantage of the conductive-sole shoe discount program. In addition, all employees venturing onto the production floor are required to wear an ESD smock. All handling equipment is grounded, conductive rubber used for conveyors, and many transport mechanisms are wire brush rollers. The environment is rigidly temperature and humidity controlled.
It's easy to develop huge static potentials when you have equipment running for a long time. Look at devices intended to generate high voltage static electricity: Wimshurst generators, Van de Graaf generators, etc work with simple components such as a rubber belt or rotating disk. Even dropping components can generate electricity; one high voltage generator works by dripping water from two tin cans.
Since the effects of static electricity may not show up until later, when the operating limits of a gate or two are much lower than necessary, it makes no sense to manufacture any electronic devices without rudimentary ESD protection.
Someone asks about the multiplayer Doom 3. They haven't worked on it yet. In the middle of a live Q&A session, Tim is assuring everyone the game will be multiplayer. He starts throwing out words even though he doesn't know the exact way it will work, because, hey, they haven't done multiplayer yet.
Tim blurts "It will be a peer to peer system." That's the entire discussion of that in the whole article. There is nothing else.
By "peer to peer" system he simply meant "yes, you will be able to hook up your computers and play together" and nothing else. Why does this deserve a front page article? It doesn't. It was obviously something he said while in a live situation and he wasn't sure of the details.
The poster of this article looks sillier than the stock market and Alan Greenspan. What's even more disturbing is that Taco fell for it too. Someone needs to send over good strong pot of coffee.
It's days like these when the trolls start to make sense.
This would be possible to implement in the mouse firmware.
I spent last year programming a USB peripheral...the power of USB gives it complexity, but great flexibility. You can configure any USB device to look like a standard HID (human interface device) with minimal effort. Many cheap USB microcontrollers, such as those found in optical mice, have several endpoints available. You can configure a mouse to identify both as a mouse, and a USB keyboard. From there, the mouse just has to find barcodes and send them as if from a keyboard. No special drivers, as HID should be standard for practically all currently used computer.
On a side note, having programmed a USB device gives you a whole new perspective on peripheral development. I could, if I wanted to, build a Mechwarrior cockpit with two integrated joysticks, system volume control, buttons and switches mapped to keys, all running off one microcontroller and USB port. Maybe someday when I have a LOT more time!:-)
Perfect Target Market!
on
Solar Surgery
·
· Score: 3, Funny
This is a great invention for Vegans...all their cooking must be done in the sun. Now they have a natural alternative to pollution-spewing lasers.
Maybe now I can finally get that extra-dark tan I want.
Well, the whole concept DOES sound pretty familiar. I just graduated from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (you know, those guys ranked #1 over Cooper Union and Harvey Mudd for the last 3 years in U.S. News and World Report).
Granted at the top, it's all pretty close. We all had a lot of hands-on engineering, plus a humanities department that felt it had to compete on the same level as the engineering departments. I ended up taking nine humanities classes for total of 36 credits, out of a 196 credit program. Though that a good amount, it's not overwhelming. There definitely was enough time to do some hardcore engineering:-)
I didn't do as well as I hoped, but still managed to get a temporary engineering position while looking for a job. I had a telephone interview yesterday, and they called this morning to set up a personal interview. The entire reason for their interest was the fact that I went to Rose-Hulman and survived.
The Olin Foundation paid for our two newest and best-equipped classroom buildings. I did enjoy the network ports at every seat:-)
If you believe the buzz, you'll conclude that programmers, academics and engineers should be scared witless about being sued under the DMCA. In effect for nearly two years, the law sets protections for the codes that are wrapped around certain copyrighted content such as DVDs and electronic books.
After 2600 and DeCSS, why yes, yes I am scared witless about being sued under the DMCA. All I have to do is make something, someone finds a way to use it for copying some material, and I'm in deep trouble.
It does not matter that the DMCA doesn't apply to many situations. Most people don't know exactly what the DMCA covers...all that needs to happen is someone charges me with violating the DMCA. Regardless of whether the charge ends up being valid, you have been "tainted" and most people won't understand just how false the charges were. Having to defend yourself against these charges can result in large financial losses, not to mention the possibility of being fired.
Sometimes the method of determining the intent of a device is so esoteric, many people will think you just scraped by on a technicality.
I don't think the EFF has been hyping this enough. I can go through a day without talking to someone who has ever heard of the DMCA or the EFF. We are the beginning of a new generation, where we depend on the storage and transfer of digital information in our daily lives. It's our responsibility to make sure that this new frontier isn't locked down and commercialized before we have a chance to explore it. This is our generation and our responsibilty.
When you're standing in a pit of snakes, the moment you become complacent and careless is when they strike.
This is a great idea. It's very similar to a device I'm about to finally get around to developing.
The idea is similar to those wireless child tethers that sound an alarm when the kid wanders more than 20 feet or so away from the parent. In this case, the transmitter is a belt-clip or wrist-worn device, and the receiver is a small USB device.
Mostly targeted towards sysadmins or people who need computer security in a relatively public area, the device would lock your station whenever you were more than a few yards away. When you arrive back at your station, you can either type your password or have the receiver automatically unlock the screen.
Obviously there would need to be good encryption, preferably in the computer itself so no one can unlock your computer with a doctored USB key. The transmitter and receiver can use a system of rotating codes to prevent wireless capture.
The main point is simply to prevent the overly curious from messing with your computer while you walk down the hall to grab another Mountain Dew. Of course you can lock your screen before you leave, but do you remember to do it every time?
The entire success of spam depends on human eyes reading it. If no one ever sees the spam, then spammers will have no money. Then they'll quit SENDING spam and have to start EATING it! Ahahaha!
They can have the spam, egg, bacon, spam, CROW, spam, and spam.
Ummmm...well, DUH. That was pretty evident. What he said, which was the funny part, is that he is NOT overwhelmed by "hot teen bitches who want to get naked for him right now" and he ISN'T "rolling in Nigerian money" which are things that ACTUAL movie stars already HAVE.
I guess at 22 in the engineering field I've lost touch with what nerds feel is funny.
Of course, I tend to not put a whole lot of stock in what I read online...if I did I'd be overwhelmed with the sheer amount of hot teen bitches who want to get naked for me right now, and I'd be rolling in Nigerian money.
Exactly, Will. Most bigshot, part-in-Star-Trek-gettin' movie stars already have those problems.
First of all, if you signed that agreement, everything you do at work is theirs.
If you want to do something on your own time, you have to take precautions. It might not be convenient, but you'll thank yourself when your old company can't come after the business you just started.
1) Keep a detailed journal. In fact, keep two journals, one for the things you do at work and another for the things you do at home. There shouldn't be much common between them.
2) Buy your own equipment and development tools. You can't use their computer, their copy of Visual Studio, their ciruit fab machine, whatever. Anything you make, that you want to be totally yours, must be done on your own dollar. Don't even use their workspace, or their email system, or their internet pipe.
3) Make sure you fully understand the intellectual property agreements, and have a copy of the one you signed. If you break any part of the contract, you don't have a leg to stand on.
I know everyone wants to be friends with their old company, happy memories etc., but this is business. If they think you are taking a chunk out of their dollar, they will come after you. Play it safe, or be sorry.
Just like Mouse Gestures, one could have Motion Macros, move your hand in a specific pattern while typing, and have it insert predefined text. Depending on sensitivity, one could do really cool stuff while typing with the Power Glove on.
Have you ever SEEN a Powerglove? Nobody's going to be typing with THAT on!
Hey, there's a little mad scientist in you already, if you're trying to build a robot. Why not go all the way and find dead equipment, harvesting them for their parts?
Sometimes you get an idea of how something's supposed to be, and no other options seem possible. When you're ripping apart an old copier, or cash register, you'll see a lot of ways to get things done. You can adapt what you need to what you have.
My best sources for parts have been various pieces of office equipment. These are all robots in some way or another, since they fulfill the requirement of a machine doing something that a human would normally do manually. Old scanners and printers are full of gears, motors, toothed belts, pulleys, rollers, shafts, hubs, hinges, etc. Get into a bigger piece of equipment like an old copier, and you'll have a goldmine of parts.
The best part is, you'll have a hard time paying much for the best pieces of equipment. If you want a tiny stepper motor, for example, you'll be looking for a full-height RLL 20MB hard drive. Also, really old 5-1/4" and 8" floppy drives are great sources of small stepper motors, worm drives, etc.
Just keep an eye out for old equipment, make some kind of deal with whatever woman controls your life at this time, and build up a stockpile.
Look. If USB 802.11 adapters, which have been out for ages, would work with the PS2, then why are you waiting breathlessly for Sony's broadband adapter? If they worked, THEN PEOPLE WOULD ALREADY BE DOING IT.
Seriously. I guess it's to be expected of an iMac and Windows XP user.:-)
Cliff, you need to quit choosing random topics without looking at them, just so you can get back to your WC3 game quickly.
Hmm. One wonders what their point was. Either they made some Florida drivers mad at the train system, or drove home the point that no one can pointlessly pull you over when you're riding the train.
Seriously, can off-duty cops accept bribes to pull people over? I'll have to try that, I have a few friends who could use a good scare:-)
The discussion happened well before 1979, close enough to be considered almost 30 years ago. I'm sure he wasn't the first person to think about the problem.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, I'd be fully prepared to sell him my Visor Deluxe for $350.
Mmmm...that's not all bad. Once I found a genuine, pristine Simpson analog multimeter...mirrored scale, all the necessary features, and great to look at. All that and the tangy scent of Bakelite, for just ten dollars.
Of course there's the time I found a barely used HP professional-grade inkjet printer for $20.
But these times are few, many people are hanging on to old hardware a lot longer now. Good time to check the thrift stores is a couple weeks after Christmas.
I remember, back in the PC boom when Gateway was running those ads in Computer Shopper soap-opera style, that someone came up with a similar idea.
The laptop computer had just gotten usable (sort of), and business users were taking work on the road. Normally the cube jungle and office walls are fine to protect data from prying eyes, but laptop screens were a real concern.
The solution was...a solution, which you wiped onto your laptop screen, intended to strip off the last polarizing layer. This last layer is what made sense of the supertwist LCD displays. The kit came with a pair of polarized glasses to prevent anyone else from seeing your screen; to them, it looked like a blank white display. Of course they addressed the issue of normal polarized sunglasses allowing circumvention...their glasses needed to be polarized at right angles to normal sunglass polarization. Of course this doesn't keep people with normal sunglasses from simply rotating the glasses, or their head, 90 degrees.
I never saw the point. Once enough people have the glasses, it's just like having an open display again, except less convenient to use.
There's a reason it never took off in the years since it was first invented.
Here is a link. Sorry, all I could find is an Angelfire site. I originally read about it in this book, I think.
I recently toured at a major manufacturer of airbag controls...definitely a very critical and defect sensitive operation. Approximately 3 million parts are placed every day at this facility.
The floors have conductive particles embedded in them, all employees are required to wear either two ESD sole straps or take advantage of the conductive-sole shoe discount program. In addition, all employees venturing onto the production floor are required to wear an ESD smock. All handling equipment is grounded, conductive rubber used for conveyors, and many transport mechanisms are wire brush rollers. The environment is rigidly temperature and humidity controlled.
It's easy to develop huge static potentials when you have equipment running for a long time. Look at devices intended to generate high voltage static electricity: Wimshurst generators, Van de Graaf generators, etc work with simple components such as a rubber belt or rotating disk. Even dropping components can generate electricity; one high voltage generator works by dripping water from two tin cans.
Since the effects of static electricity may not show up until later, when the operating limits of a gate or two are much lower than necessary, it makes no sense to manufacture any electronic devices without rudimentary ESD protection.
OK.
Someone asks about the multiplayer Doom 3. They haven't worked on it yet. In the middle of a live Q&A session, Tim is assuring everyone the game will be multiplayer. He starts throwing out words even though he doesn't know the exact way it will work, because, hey, they haven't done multiplayer yet.
Tim blurts "It will be a peer to peer system." That's the entire discussion of that in the whole article. There is nothing else.
By "peer to peer" system he simply meant "yes, you will be able to hook up your computers and play together" and nothing else. Why does this deserve a front page article? It doesn't. It was obviously something he said while in a live situation and he wasn't sure of the details.
The poster of this article looks sillier than the stock market and Alan Greenspan. What's even more disturbing is that Taco fell for it too. Someone needs to send over good strong pot of coffee.
It's days like these when the trolls start to make sense.
...just not with an existing mouse.
:-)
This would be possible to implement in the mouse firmware.
I spent last year programming a USB peripheral...the power of USB gives it complexity, but great flexibility. You can configure any USB device to look like a standard HID (human interface device) with minimal effort. Many cheap USB microcontrollers, such as those found in optical mice, have several endpoints available. You can configure a mouse to identify both as a mouse, and a USB keyboard. From there, the mouse just has to find barcodes and send them as if from a keyboard. No special drivers, as HID should be standard for practically all currently used computer.
On a side note, having programmed a USB device gives you a whole new perspective on peripheral development. I could, if I wanted to, build a Mechwarrior cockpit with two integrated joysticks, system volume control, buttons and switches mapped to keys, all running off one microcontroller and USB port. Maybe someday when I have a LOT more time!
This is a great invention for Vegans...all their cooking must be done in the sun. Now they have a natural alternative to pollution-spewing lasers.
Maybe now I can finally get that extra-dark tan I want.
Well, the whole concept DOES sound pretty familiar. I just graduated from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (you know, those guys ranked #1 over Cooper Union and Harvey Mudd for the last 3 years in U.S. News and World Report).
:-)
:-)
Granted at the top, it's all pretty close. We all had a lot of hands-on engineering, plus a humanities department that felt it had to compete on the same level as the engineering departments. I ended up taking nine humanities classes for total of 36 credits, out of a 196 credit program. Though that a good amount, it's not overwhelming. There definitely was enough time to do some hardcore engineering
I didn't do as well as I hoped, but still managed to get a temporary engineering position while looking for a job. I had a telephone interview yesterday, and they called this morning to set up a personal interview. The entire reason for their interest was the fact that I went to Rose-Hulman and survived.
The Olin Foundation paid for our two newest and best-equipped classroom buildings. I did enjoy the network ports at every seat
Mammoths frozen immediately after death are rare gems, as there is a higher chance of their body parts and internal organs being preserved.
:-)
The part of the body that the Japanese are most keen to get are the testicles.
Wow. Why am I not surprised?
If you believe the buzz, you'll conclude that programmers, academics and engineers should be scared witless about being sued under the DMCA. In effect for nearly two years, the law sets protections for the codes that are wrapped around certain copyrighted content such as DVDs and electronic books.
After 2600 and DeCSS, why yes, yes I am scared witless about being sued under the DMCA. All I have to do is make something, someone finds a way to use it for copying some material, and I'm in deep trouble.
It does not matter that the DMCA doesn't apply to many situations. Most people don't know exactly what the DMCA covers...all that needs to happen is someone charges me with violating the DMCA. Regardless of whether the charge ends up being valid, you have been "tainted" and most people won't understand just how false the charges were. Having to defend yourself against these charges can result in large financial losses, not to mention the possibility of being fired.
Sometimes the method of determining the intent of a device is so esoteric, many people will think you just scraped by on a technicality.
I don't think the EFF has been hyping this enough. I can go through a day without talking to someone who has ever heard of the DMCA or the EFF. We are the beginning of a new generation, where we depend on the storage and transfer of digital information in our daily lives. It's our responsibility to make sure that this new frontier isn't locked down and commercialized before we have a chance to explore it. This is our generation and our responsibilty.
When you're standing in a pit of snakes, the moment you become complacent and careless is when they strike.
Hey aztektum, hope your comment gets modded up since you want it to so badly. Shout out from Dalnet #wisconsin!
LOL
ummm....yeah karma suicide. oops.
This is a great idea. It's very similar to a device I'm about to finally get around to developing.
The idea is similar to those wireless child tethers that sound an alarm when the kid wanders more than 20 feet or so away from the parent. In this case, the transmitter is a belt-clip or wrist-worn device, and the receiver is a small USB device.
Mostly targeted towards sysadmins or people who need computer security in a relatively public area, the device would lock your station whenever you were more than a few yards away. When you arrive back at your station, you can either type your password or have the receiver automatically unlock the screen.
Obviously there would need to be good encryption, preferably in the computer itself so no one can unlock your computer with a doctored USB key. The transmitter and receiver can use a system of rotating codes to prevent wireless capture.
The main point is simply to prevent the overly curious from messing with your computer while you walk down the hall to grab another Mountain Dew. Of course you can lock your screen before you leave, but do you remember to do it every time?
Wha...? Did you read the article?
Filtering == Fighting
The entire success of spam depends on human eyes reading it. If no one ever sees the spam, then spammers will have no money. Then they'll quit SENDING spam and have to start EATING it! Ahahaha!
They can have the spam, egg, bacon, spam, CROW, spam, and spam.
Wow...those are great, or should I say Totally Excellent!
.sig than I have!
Congratulations, you have now spent more time on my
Ummmm...well, DUH. That was pretty evident. What he said, which was the funny part, is that he is NOT overwhelmed by "hot teen bitches who want to get naked for him right now" and he ISN'T "rolling in Nigerian money" which are things that ACTUAL movie stars already HAVE.
I guess at 22 in the engineering field I've lost touch with what nerds feel is funny.
Ok some moderator mods me down for being offtopic. Did they even read the article? Geez. What a lame excuse for a brain-stem attached to two hands.
I didn't like "Most Excellent" immediately followed by (mostly affected by....)
Quote from the article:
Of course, I tend to not put a whole lot of stock in what I read online...if I did I'd be overwhelmed with the sheer amount of hot teen bitches who want to get naked for me right now, and I'd be rolling in Nigerian money.
Exactly, Will. Most bigshot, part-in-Star-Trek-gettin' movie stars already have those problems.
First of all, if you signed that agreement, everything you do at work is theirs.
If you want to do something on your own time, you have to take precautions. It might not be convenient, but you'll thank yourself when your old company can't come after the business you just started.
1) Keep a detailed journal. In fact, keep two journals, one for the things you do at work and another for the things you do at home. There shouldn't be much common between them.
2) Buy your own equipment and development tools. You can't use their computer, their copy of Visual Studio, their ciruit fab machine, whatever. Anything you make, that you want to be totally yours, must be done on your own dollar. Don't even use their workspace, or their email system, or their internet pipe.
3) Make sure you fully understand the intellectual property agreements, and have a copy of the one you signed. If you break any part of the contract, you don't have a leg to stand on.
I know everyone wants to be friends with their old company, happy memories etc., but this is business. If they think you are taking a chunk out of their dollar, they will come after you. Play it safe, or be sorry.
Just like Mouse Gestures, one could have Motion Macros, move your hand in a specific pattern while typing, and have it insert predefined text. Depending on sensitivity, one could do really cool stuff while typing with the Power Glove on.
Have you ever SEEN a Powerglove? Nobody's going to be typing with THAT on!
Hey, there's a little mad scientist in you already, if you're trying to build a robot. Why not go all the way and find dead equipment, harvesting them for their parts?
Sometimes you get an idea of how something's supposed to be, and no other options seem possible. When you're ripping apart an old copier, or cash register, you'll see a lot of ways to get things done. You can adapt what you need to what you have.
My best sources for parts have been various pieces of office equipment. These are all robots in some way or another, since they fulfill the requirement of a machine doing something that a human would normally do manually. Old scanners and printers are full of gears, motors, toothed belts, pulleys, rollers, shafts, hubs, hinges, etc. Get into a bigger piece of equipment like an old copier, and you'll have a goldmine of parts.
The best part is, you'll have a hard time paying much for the best pieces of equipment. If you want a tiny stepper motor, for example, you'll be looking for a full-height RLL 20MB hard drive. Also, really old 5-1/4" and 8" floppy drives are great sources of small stepper motors, worm drives, etc.
Just keep an eye out for old equipment, make some kind of deal with whatever woman controls your life at this time, and build up a stockpile.
Look. If USB 802.11 adapters, which have been out for ages, would work with the PS2, then why are you waiting breathlessly for Sony's broadband adapter? If they worked, THEN PEOPLE WOULD ALREADY BE DOING IT.
:-)
Seriously. I guess it's to be expected of an iMac and Windows XP user.
Cliff, you need to quit choosing random topics without looking at them, just so you can get back to your WC3 game quickly.
Hmm. One wonders what their point was. Either they made some Florida drivers mad at the train system, or drove home the point that no one can pointlessly pull you over when you're riding the train.
:-)
Seriously, can off-duty cops accept bribes to pull people over? I'll have to try that, I have a few friends who could use a good scare
RTFA.
The discussion happened well before 1979, close enough to be considered almost 30 years ago. I'm sure he wasn't the first person to think about the problem.